Bad news for Marlins rivals are mounting

The Miami Marlins shook up the team's pitching mix, which helped with the team's historic weekend series. Unfortunately for them, the same can't be said about The Fish's division rivals from north in Atlanta. The team lost four in a row to the San Diego Padres, and there are further issues with the team that were completely unexpected. A surprising injury and suspension hit two key team players.

Bad news for the Miami Marlins division rivals.

I'm actually surprised about these events and am no longer expecting the Atlanta Braves to win the NL East. Realistically I'm not predicting the Miami mralins to do it either, at this point it looks like it will be the Philadelphia Phillies. That said, it's definitely shocking what happened.

Freshly signed Atlanta LF Jurickson Profar has been suspended for eighty games due to using Performance Enhancing Drugs. This immediately calls into question what he did last season. In 2024, Jurickson Profar batted an impressive .280/.380/.459, with 24 home runs and 85 RBI in 158 games and 564 AB. He was worth an above average 3.6 WAR.

So far this season, Profar has batted just .200/.250/.200, with no home runs and no RBI in 4 games and 15 AB. We won't see him play again for quite some time and I now genuinely wonder how much of that 2024 performance was even real. He was serving as Atlanta's lead-off hitter to start the season, so it's quite a blow to the team.

Atlanta also lost starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez to injury. He has right shoulder inflammation and has been placed on the 15-day IL. We don't know how long he will be out for and that's an ominous sounding injury. Last season, he broke out with a 1.99 ERA/2.92 FIP, with 9.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 26 games and 135.2 innings pitched. He was worth 5.1 WAR and suddenly became an integral part of Atlanta's rotation. It's definitely a tough blow to now see him gone for a considerable amount of time.

I wish Reynaldo Lopez a speedy recovery and hope that it doesn't get worse.