Miami Marlins notes: key player injured; rivals race

The 2024 season is winding down and sadly the Miami Marlins have no chance at making the playoffs. The Fish did find new clubhouse leaders and advanced stats show that others can even get better. Those "others" include star third baseman Connor Norby. Speaking of Norby, he's currently injured and that's the topic of this article along with an interesting playoff race.

Miami Marlins third baseman Connor Norby has a minor injury.

Connor Norby is breaking out as a core piece for the Miami Marlins. The third baseman came over from Peter Bendix's amazing trade with the Baltimore Orioles. That was a fleecing of the trade. It will probably go down in history as one of the greatest trades in team history. Norby is currently batting .312/.354/.636, with 6 home runs and 13 RBI in 19 games and 77 AB. He does have a .391 BABIP, but even if his stats decline a bit, he still looks like a true star going forward.

The big question is if he'll finish the season healthy. He's been struggling with left foot soreness, which is annoying minor injury that sadly can get worse. He didn't play yesterday, so hopefully he'll be able to play tonight. If not, then it's clearly a worse injury than we think and he may need to go on the IL. The hope is of course that he can avoid that issue.

From Connor Norby and his injury to other NL East news. While as I mentioned earlier, The Fish aren't going to the playoffs, the Philadelphia Phillies have the division locked up. The Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets in the meantime are battling for the final National League Wild Card spot. The two teams are tied for the spot, the Nets went 8-2 in their last 10 games, while Atlanta went 5-5.

Atlanta will finish their road series with the Washington Nationals tonight. They have a tough 4 game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers coming up; a 3 game away series against the Cincinnati Reds; a 3 game away series against the Miami Marlins; and will finish the season with two home series against the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals. The latter two will probably decide their season.

The Mets will finish their away series with the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. They then have a tough 3 game away series against Philly; a 3 game home series against Washington and then a 4 game home set with Philly. They then move on to two 3 game away series against Atlanta and the Milwaukee Brewers. Atlanta is currently my pick to get the final Wild Card spot.