3 Biggest Miami Marlins mistakes in the Kim Ng era

2. THE FARM SYSTEM

One of the most important things for a Major League team is to have a strong farm system. That's why the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Dodgers for example are consistently in the playoffs. This is also how the Atlanta Braves built their core that led to the 2021 World Championship. This is how the Houston Astros built their dynasty....

Peter Bendix was specifically brought in to run the Miami Marlins from Tampa, in order to copy their strategy with the farm. The Fish's farm was ranked #5 in 2020 when Kim Ng took over. It was #4 in 2021, it was #16 in 2022 and it went further down to #24 in 2023. None of that is even remotely acceptable.

We see top teams consistently have top farm systems through solid drafts. They do this despite promotions and signings of qualifying offer rejecting free agents (that require giving up a draft pick). There's no excuse for the Miami Marlins farm system to decline, despite minimal significant promotions and non-signings of QO rejecting free agents.

Bruce Sherman brought in Peter Bendix specifically to fix this issue. Kim Ng's inadequate drafting has been a big reason for why The Fish ended up in this mess.

NEXT: WORST CONTRACT IN TEAM HISTORY?

1. AVISAIL GARCIA

Kim Ng signed Avisail Garcia to play RF for the Miami Marlins for 4 years/$53 million, prior to the 2022 season. Ouch. This did not go well. The sad part is it looked terrible from the beginning. It was higher than his projected contract and didn't make much sense to begin with. Avi had a very up and down career and committing to him for 4 years didn't make much sense.

Avisail Garcia played for the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox between 2012 and 2016. His batting line during this period was .258/.310/.385. In 2017, he batted .330/.380/.506, with 18 home runs and 80 RBI, in 136 games and 518 AB. This seemed to be his breakout season, however it came with an abnormally high .392 BABIP, hinting at quite a bit of luck getting there.

Once Avi's BABIP normalized in 2018 to .271, he batted.236/.281/.438, with 19 home runs and 49 RBI in 93 games and 356 AB. Chicago move don from him after the season, and he found a new albeit temporary home with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2019. With Tampa, he batted .282/.332/.464, with 20 home runs and 72 RBI in 125 games and 489 AB.

Did I mention that he also proved himself to be a bit injury-prone? Oh and it gets worse, at this point he only had one truly good season, which came with a serious red flag in his BABIP. He had another good season in Tampa, but considering how they played matchups there was at least some concern there. The wheels fell off once again in 2020. This time he batted .238/.333/.326, with 2 home runs and 15 RBI in 53 games and 181 AB, with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Avisail Garcia did better in his platform 2021 season. This time he batted .262/.330/.490, with 29 home runs and 86 RBI, in 135 games and 461 AB. It was his contract year. At this point, Avisail was an obviously injury-prone gamble. It seemed a bit insane to commit to him for 4 years. Maybe 1 year, or at most 2. He has so far batted an abysmal .215/.260/.316, with 11 home runs and 47 RBI, in 135 games and 465 AB with The Fish.

Kim Ng made a lot of bad moves with the Miami Marlins, and I would go so far as to say that the team made the playoffs "despite", rather than "because" of her. To be fair, she did acquire 3B Jake Burger, but that was to solve an issue that she created earlier with the Jean Segura signing.