Miami Marlins: Looking at the career of Edward Mujica

A franchise that has been in baseball for almost three decades now, the Miami Marlins have seen countless players wear the name “Marlins” across the front of their jersey’s, a group that includes a few all-time greats. As we begin the flip the calendar to 2022, a new weekly series begins here at Marlin Maniac involving those players.

Starting today, we will take a look at a different player each week going forward from the Marlins franchise history, and what they did during their time in the organization. As mentioned previously, this will be a weekly series, with a new player post every Monday morning.

As you can likely see by the title as well, we begin this week with right-hander Edward Mujica, a reliever who appeared in over 100+ games with the Marlins from 2011-12.

Looking at the Miami Marlins career of Edward Mujica

A former free agent signing by Cleveland back in 2001, Mujica would work his way up through the minor leagues, and would debut in the major leagues in 2006 as a reliever. Spending time with Cleveland and the San Diego Padres from 2006-10, Mujica would be traded to the then Florida Marlins back on November 13, 2010 in a multi-player deal that sent outfielder Cameron Maybin to San Diego.

Joining the Marlins major league bullpen instantly, Mujica would enjoy success early-on in South Florida pitching out of a middle/eighth inning role in 2011. Included in that 2011 season was an impressive 9-6 record with a 2.96 ERA across 76 innings, a season in which the right-hander also added 17 holds.

Having had success in year one with the Marlins, Mujica entered the 2012 campaign as an important piece of the Miami bullpen. The right-hander would however struggle across the first half of the season posting a combined 4.38 ERA with two saves across 41 relief appearances in a similar role to 2011.

Mujica’s time in the Marlins organization would end however mid-way through the 2012 season when the then 28-year-old was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals back on July 31, 2012, and would go-on to enjoy a phenomenal finish to the season posting a 1.03 ERA across 29 relief appearances in St. Louis.

For his two season’s combined with the Marlins in 2011-12, Mujica would appear in a total of 108 games where the right-hander posted a combined 3.44 ERA across 115 innings with 23 walks and 89 strikeouts. Another notable number from his time in Miami included a combined 1.8 WAR, the second-highest of his time with any of his seven career teams where he saw time at the major league level.

After those two season’s with the Miami Marlins, Mujica would go-on to make his first, and only, All-Star appearance in 2013 with the Cardinals, and would also see time in the big leagues from 2014-15 with the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics, as well as in 2017 with the Detroit Tigers. Now 37-years-old, Mujica last pitched with Triple-A Memphis in the Cardinals organization back in 2018.