Miami Marlins give fans gift of hope with Pete Fairbanks signing

It would have been hard for the Miami Marlins to give their fans a better Christmas present than this:

Yes, at long last, the Miami Marlins finally got their ninth inning man, inking Fairbanks to a one-year, $13 million deal on Christmas Eve. This puts an end to an offseason of rumors linking the veteran right-hander to the franchise. He easily becomes the elder statesman on the 40-man roster, born back during the club's inaugural season, and is the new clear No. 1 option out of the bullpen for Marlins manager Clayton McCullough.

It's a move that needed to happen anyway. The MLBTradeRumors report on the signing had Miami's bullpen ranking 23rd in baseball last season- that's math that simply doesn't math for a small market team hoping to contend, especially one who's strength is pitching. Throw in the fact that Miami's far and away best reliever from 2025 was just lost for the season due to an elbow injury, and the pressure to get something done was dialed up to an eleven.

As to how effective Fairbanks can be in 2026, let's leave that to other sites for the time being. How good or lucky he was to earn all those saves, the shape of his pitches, it's all worth taking a look at prior to Opening Day. However, for right now, the most important takeaway for Marlins fans is something just as important, even if far more intangible.

Hope.

That's the gift Marlins fans just got, with their team doing the big kid/big market thing and dropping the money on the best free agent option available at the position just weakened further by injury. Furthermore, despite claims that the club did want to improve in 2026 and making a real run at contention, this was the clearest signal yet that Miami would be making the kind of moves that would allow it to happen.

Money has now been spent, so you better believe Bruce Sherman is expecting a return on investment.

Consequently, as opposed to past holiday seasons that saw franchise favorites dealt for prospects, Marlins fans got a truly needle moving move to celebrate heading into the new year.

Fans can't really ask for much more than that.

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