Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series, No. 32: Alex Fernandez

If you're a Miami Marlins fan old enough to remember the 1997 World champions, the answer to best to wear No. 32 was an obvious one.

Then again, if you weren't old enough, there's a pretty good chance you thought the answer was obvious.

That's the kind of close contest you get when you pit a Marlins World Series winning pitcher from South Florida against one of the organization's grittiest everyday players. However, WAR is the primary tiebreaker for this Marlin Maniac Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series, and the gap really wasn't close at all between one and two here. Plus, there is that whole Flags Fly Forever thing.

Thus it is that Alex Fernandez (7.3 WAR) beats out Derek "Please Hit Me With A Pitch" Dietrich (4.0 WAR in the jersey) for the Miami Marlins No. 32 honor here. Even if you did account for Dietrich's entire Marlins career, that would only elevate him to a grand total of 4.1 WAR in the final reckoning.

Two other notables here before diving into Fernandez. If you take the entire MLB career view, the clear winner would be MLB Hall of Famer Tim Raines, who spent his final season barely hitting his weight for Miami in 2002. Of much more import to an actual Marlins roster is the current owner of the No. 32 Marlins jersey number, Ronny Henriquez. With a breakout 2025 campaign, Henriquez was the best reliever in Miami's bullpen. Plus, considering the Marlins keep refusing to spend money on any of the closers that keep flying off the shelves in free agency this offseason, there may well be a boatload of saves in Henriquez' future.

For Fernandez though, while being a Miami Beach native like yours truly would usually be enough to curry favor here, he gets this spot entirely on merit. After being drafted out of Miami Dade by the Chicago White Sox, Fernandez had a dominant start to his career for the South Siders before coming over to the Marlins as part of their free agent spending splurge heading into the 1997 season. He then proceeded to tie the then franchise record for wins in a 17-12, 220 IP season that helped propel the club to the postseason. Fernandez' success continued in the playoffs as he was the winning pitcher in the final game of 1997 NLDS, pushing Miami into the next round.

Unfortunately, things got much rougher from there. After getting shelled by the Braves in his lone NLCS appearance, it was revealed that Fernandez tore his rotator cuff- an injury that knocked him out of action for the rest of the 1997 playoffs and for all of 1998. Consequently, he was one of the few players to survive the firesale that followed that first World Series championship. He'd have a solid but shortened 1999 season, and then a much less effective 2000 before the arm injuries just became too much to overcome. He did earn the win in two straight Opening Day appearances for the Marlins in those seasons though.

Here's to you Alex.