4 Marlins to blame for the Miami Marlins Wild Card Disaster

The Miami Marlins were on a roll to end the regular season and had the most wins in a month all season in September.  Did they simply just run out of gas or are players specifically to blame for the rough venture into October?  Going into the Phillies series they showed no signs of slowing down but just the opposite, they were winning regularly.  

The biggest scapegoat for Marlins brass is blaming it on injuries which indeed plagued them all season.  It hurt most specifically in the playoffs as their likely top two pitchers this season Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez were both on the sidelines for the rest of the season in mid-September.   Those two would certainly have made a big impact and could have helped their push but it wasn’t the pitching that made the team lose, as they held together as much as they could with no run support.   

The Marlins scored only a few runs which wouldn’t even have allowed them to win either game by combining them.   It was not for lack of opportunity to score completely as they had a few different moments they could have scored runs.  The offense was clearly at fault 100% for the losses in their short lived postseason here in 2023, so let’s take a look at who is really to blame.  

#4 Skip Schumaker

The rookie manager had a great season and should be in competition for manager of the year for the National League but I’m sure he is looking back on his lineups and second guessing himself, as any good manager will do.  The Marlins offense was well below any other team in production this season although they did improve at the deadline.   Skip had a handful of playoff experienced players on his roster and only 1 of them saw real action with the others sitting on the bench.   

While I can understand that the players on the bench were not productive during the season and would have to fight for a spot in the order, I think experience helps most in the playoffs. The Marlins started plenty of young players in their lineup and the most productive player had a good amount of playoff experience.  

Josh Bell was out of this world in the series and played up to all the hype and was well worth it.  Joey Wendle understandably was on the bench although he could have helped out some in the infield and been a solid start at short for one of the games and putting Arraez at DH.  Yuli Gurriel I believe should have started one of the games as he hit .354 last season in the postseason and has won championships and could have been a strong presence on the field.  Yuli could have played first and given Josh Bell a day a DH and the production would have probably been better as playing in Philadelphia in the postseason is not easy.  

#3 Bryan De La Cruz

Several Marlins hitters looked lost at the plate and Bryan De La Cruz is no exception to that rule.  DLC had several at bats where it seemed he was just guessing what the pitch was and thinking it was fastball and swinging on it no matter where it was.  That resulted in some ugly approaches at the plate and big swings and misses.  

DLC was 1-for-6 for the series with a walk and an RBI.  Since he did have one of the two runs accounted for I can’t give him that hard of a time but he could have done better.  Now imagine if Kim Ng didn’t make any deadline deals and he was still hitting in the 4 hole.  Yikes.  Thankfully he was at his rightful place in the order but he did not capitalize on better pitch selection as a result.  

DLC could be a pretty solid outfielder for the Marlins for years to come and hopefully he can build on this experience.  As for this year however, he was overmatched and likely over hyped with nerves, at least that is how it looked.  To his credit he stayed true to the Kim Ng model of low strikeout as he didn’t strike out once in the series and that is also to his credit as compared to other players who are on this list.  

#2 Jorge Soler

Jorge Soler had probably one of the most iconic playoff performances in recent memory when he was on the Atlanta Braves.  Soler smashed home run after home run to help them defeat the Houston Astros in the World Series and the Marlins were hoping for just the same.   They did not get that Soler, not even close.  

Soler was brought in to  be the Marlins big bopper and so far he has been doing just that but in the postseason he was nothing even close. Soler went 1-for-8 for the 2 game set and had 5 strikeouts. 5 strikeouts?!?  He did have one hit which was a single to left field late in the game in game two after the score was already 7-0.  The question remains, did he have any impact at all on the Marlins push to win this postseason, the answer is definitively no.   

Can the Marlins forge their way into the postseason next year without Sandy?  Yes, but they will need more offense and finding a big time productive outfielder has to be the top of the priority list.  Soler has had a multitude of injuries and really is only a DH at this point in his career and thus takes away from the lineup flexibility and if he is not hitting, then do they really want him?