Miami Marlins approach to playoffs in 2025 was fine- on one condition

All in all, you can't call the 2025 Miami Marlins anything less than a roaring success.

The 2024 model of the Marlins went 62-100, and then proceeded to deal away their most productive offensive player in the offseason. To finish seventeen games better at 79-83 just a year later, and to do so without a ton of splashy free agent signings or promotions of generational prospects, is remarkable. Granted, some MLB team seemingly makes a big jump every year. However, those success stories usually come with some form of that aforementioned help. It's rare for a club to enter a season with expectations as low as Miami did, and to close on such a high note.

The mood around this franchise has truly done a 180. Confidence exists. Hopes, if not high, at least exist. It's a feat all the more impressive given that the 2025 Marlins- as fun as they were to watch...was a losing team that missed the playoffs.

And that it is that last issue that deserves some extra attention...because the 2025 Miami Marlins kinda should have made the playoffs. Some fans probably are upset that this 79-83 finish wasn't a few wins better, and not just in the disappointed to have missed out on October way. Rather, disappointed that their team's front office didn't do enough to push them over the hump way.

Obviously, it's hard to account for every variable over the course of a 162-game season. To say that a couple losses being flipped into Joe Angel's proverbial win column could have made a difference always runs the risk of having someone point out how some of those close victories could just as easily have been losses. I have no counter- the logic there is as cliche as it is unassailable.

And yet...this also isn't the article suggesting that the Marlins should have traded top prospect Thomas White for Eugenio Suarez back in July. No blowing up of the farm, no taking on of a massive contract. No, this is just the article suggesting that maybe...Josh Simpson didn't need to pitch a high leverage inning in the majors. That maybe...the Marlins could have claimed Nathaniel Lowe. That maybe...relief prospect Josh White could have been promoted this summer as opposed to next spring.

In other words, while not doing anything to disrupt The Plan with a capital P, that perhaps the Miami Marlins could have adjusted the timeline, a little, of some of the lesser talents in the organization that still had more talent than some of the players that finished out 2025 on the MLB roster. A low level promotion here, a cheap waiver claim there, spending an extra million dollars on a player that sailed through waivers unclaimed, a few more innings for the more proven relievers in the bullpen...the list goes on. Those are the tweaks that could have thrown Miami into the playoffs again. Likely with the same odds of a ring as the 2023 team, but with the added benefit of a healthy Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez.

Instead, you get the impression that the capital P Plan remained of paramount importance, never deviated from by Marlins high command for a moment. In hindsight, even the decisions not to move Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, and Cal Quantrill at the MLB trade deadline feel more like reflections of the market just not meeting President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix' price rather than a commitment to making a 2025 postseason run.

All of which is fine. Totally understandable, and impressively prudent on the part of the Marlins front office. The fact that there does seem to be a palpable plan, with some intelligent analysis behind it, is a major cause of that newfound hope and optimism about Miami's direction going forward.

Again, all fine...but on one condition.

The Miami Marlins have to try harder for that postseason spot in 2026.

This is one of those tricky arguments to make where the evedence works for either side. The 2025 Marlins had a terrible run differential, and a pythagorean projection of 72 wins. Not great, and not what you expect to see from a playoff caliber club. Then again, the 2023 Marlins scored even fewer runs, boasted an almost as bad pythagorean projection....and did qualify for the playoffs. In other words, there is evidence to suggest this roster is one you don't invest in, and that regression should be the expectation.

However, that 2023 Marlins team was full of players that seemed to be maxing out on potential. This 2025 club is mostly younger talents that should improve going forward. More importantly, there is a strong farm system behind the MLB roster, not a completely gutted one. There is a sense that a windows is opening up to compete, rather than closing.

The vibes are so good right now in Marlins country that most fans are just delighting in the fact that the team was competive at all. Most fans are sagely appreciating that this wasn't going to be the year, and that learning how to win when that year comes was the name of the game for Miami in 2025. Keeping things interesting, and yes ruining things for the Mets, was enough this season. More than enough even.

Yet all that good will goes away if Bendix and owner Bruce Sherman immediately start acting like 2026 will be another year in the classroom. No one expects them to go out and sign Pete Alonso or Bo Bichette- that's not the "Bendix Ball" fans have very quickly learned to appreciate. The team does need to do some investing, some bolstering of the lineup though. It needs to be an offseason of additions, not subtractions. They don't need to be a World Series favorite yet, but a winning record and a real shot at a Wild Card spot should be far closer to expected than unexpected.

Do that, and 2026 could well be the most anticipated Marlins offseason in a decade.

Don't do it, and it'll just be back to square one for the public's estimation of what exactly it is Mr. Sherman is doing owning an MLB franchise.