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3 Miami Marlins players who must do better in May
The Miami Marlins are 16-13 and are tied for a National League Wild Card spot! Did you think that it would happen? Especially after a terrible Spring Training? May is upon us now, and the question is can The Fish keep this momentum going?! There are three players who need to get better however. One player is obviously not on this list however. Who is first on this list? Let's start with a contact-oriented third baseman.
Three Miami Marlins players must get better in May.
3. 3B JEAN SEGURA
Jean Segura has a -1.0 WAR for the season right now. I don't believe that it's early to say that it's a huge disappointment. The new third baseman has a career .283/.329/.405 batting line and has over a decade of experience in the Major Leagues. Segura started his career with the Los Angeles Angels in 2012, but quickly moved on to the Milwaukee Brewers that same season.
Jean Segura played from 2012 to 2015 with the Milwaukee Brewers and batted a collective .266/.302/.360 from 2012-2015. At this point Segura was clearly not a star, but the best was yet to come for the then young infielder. Segura played for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016, and batted .319/.368/.499 with 20 home runs and 64 RBI in 153 games and 637 AB. This was a star-making campaign that made him worth 6.4 WAR.
Jean Segura moved on to the Seattle Mariners for the next two seasons (2017-2018). He batted .302/.345/.421 in the two seasons. It was at this point, that you could see that he was now an elite contact hitter in the Major Leagues. From 2019-2022 Segura played for the Philadelphia Phillies and batted a combined .281/.337/.418 throughout that time. He batted .277/.336/.387 in his final season on the team last season.
This season with the Miami Marlins, Jean Segura is batting .200/.234/.222 with no home runs an 3 RBI in 26 games and 95 AB. The production is really bad as you can see. He has a .247 BABIP, but has a career .315 BABIP, so it's possible for his production to improve. It needs to for him to justify being in the starting lineup.
The reigning NL Cy Young is next...
Sandy Alcantara was the best pitcher in the Major Leagues last season. It wasn't even remotely debatable. This season though...not so much. The ace started his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017 and produced a 4.32 ERA/6.04 FIP with 10.8 K/9 and 6.5 BB/9 in 8.1 innings as a relief pitcher. The Redbirds flipped him to the Miami Marlins in what is surely one of the worst trades in St. Louis's history. Sandy immediately improved with The Fish upon arrival, producing a 3.44 ERA/4.75 FIP with 7.9 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 in 6 starts and 34.0 innings pitched.
Alcantara followed that up in 2019 with a 3.88 ERA/4.55 FIP, with 6.9 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 32 games and 197.1 innings pitched. He was clearly improving further, but his strikeouts were in decline. It seemed to be a consequence to his control steadily improving in return. The question was whether he could take yet another step forward and get his strikeouts back up, while keeping his walks down.
In the shortened 2020 season, Sandy Alcantara did just that. He delivered a 3.00 ERA/3.71 FIP with 8.4 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9, in 7 games and 42.0 innings pitched. Sandy seemed to have turned into a legitimate ace that season. It was a star-making performance by the starting pitcher.
In 2021, Sandy Alcantara delivered a 3.19 ERA/3.42 FIP, with 8.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 33 games and 205.2 innings pitched. This was even better and was a very promising season for the ace. Sandy's rise to the top culminated in his National League Cy Young winning 2022 season. He delivered a 2.28 ERA/2.99 FIP with 8.1 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9, in 32 games and 228.2 innings pitched. That performance led to his Major League leading 8.0 WAR among pitchers.
2023 has been a different story for Alcantara. The 27 year old ace currently has a 5.04 ERA/3.85 FIP with 7.7 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. Sandy's fastball is 98.1 mph, actually faster than last season's 98.0 mph. Sandy Alcantara is so good, that it's hard for me to see any scenario where he doesn't improve in his next few starts.
A potential star LF...
Bryan De La Cruz debuted in 2021 with an impressive .296/.356/.427 batting line with 5 home runs and 19 RBI, in 58 games and 199 AB. It was a great and promising debut, with a lot of expectations coming up for the following season. Could he post similar numbers over a full season? That was the question with Bryan going into the 2022 season.
In 2022, Bryan De La Cruz batted .252/.294/.432, with 13 home runs and 43 RBI in 115 games and 329 AB. This was....not very inspiring. He was certainly more talented than his batting line suggested, but it was still a very underwhelming follow-up season. That is until you realize that it was a season of two halves...
In the first half of the 2022 season, Bryan De La Cruz batted .209/.257/.353 in the first half. In the second half, De La Cruz batted .310/.342/.535. He actually got moved to third in the batting order as he kept hitting. In that second half, De La Cruz turned into a legitimate middle of the order bat. This was extremely promising for 2023, but the slugger is currently batting just .253/.296/.374 in 25 games and 91 AB.
Can Bryan De La Cruz improve on that batting line this season? Bryan's BABIP is a surprisingly high .362, with his career mark at .337. De La Cruz's Exit Velocity is 91.5, which is the highest that he's ever had. He's consistently hitting the ball hard, but hits far too many ground balls. De La Cruz's GB% is 51.7%. It was 42.4% last season. Can he get it down, and hit more fly balls?
Bryan De La Cruz has a great Exit Velocity, and was a middle of the order bat in the second half of last season. Can he get back to that level this season? Can he become a middle of the order bat this season too? I really hope that he does, because another big bat is exactly what the Miami Marlins need in the middle of the lineup. Time will tell if he will turn the corner in May.
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