Has this Miami Marlins rebuild been a failure?

Has this rebuild been a failure for the Miami Marlins? That’s the question that’s been asked on social media by enough fans that I feel that I should write about it. We know that we don’t have a good GM. We also know that our hitting has been historically bad. Is there any silver lining here? Well, despite the terrible performance in the second half, the Miami Marlins have indeed been a lot worse than we really are at full health and with less bad luck. The question remains though, has this rebuild been a failure?

Miami Marlins fans are wondering if this rebuild is already a failure.

For this rebuild to have been a failure, the Miami Marlins need to have no good young players under contract long-term and no real hope coming from the farm system. We know that it’s not true, we have ace Sandy Alcantara locked up long-term, have a deep rotation and have an elite hitter in 2B Jazz Chisholm Jr. We definitely have core pieces to build around.

It makes sense to look at other rebuilds and question if we’re on the right track… the Houston Astros are an ideal example, winning 3 pennants and a World Series. They started their rebuild in 2011 and made the playoffs four years later in 2015, before winning the Fall Classic six years later in 2017. They however missed the playoffs in 2016. The Miami Marlins started our rebuild in 2018 and made the playoffs two years later in 2020.

The Miami Marlins are currently four years into the rebuild, and one can argue that we’re in a worse spot than Houston was in during the same timeframe. That’s a good point, but it hadn’t been nearly that long to say that. How about the Chicago Cubs rebuild? It started in 2011 as well, and the team supposedly once cursed by a goat made it to the playoffs four years later as well in 2015, and then won it all five years later in 2016.

What does this all mean? The Miami Marlins made it to the in half the time that those teams did, but did so in a shortened season. It took Houston and Chicago 5 to 6 years to win the World Series. We’re still in year 4. I think it’s way too early to call this rebuild a failure.