Miami Marlins offensive struggle in August, 4 players that were big reasons why

The Miami Marlins August record was 10-17 and the biggest struggle the Marlins had was on offense, posting a -32 run differential.  Although their pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, struggled as well they had a notoriously bad offensive month.  Pitching aside there were several different players who didn’t produce all month.  

There were some bright spots in the Marlins' offense that saved the team, especially trade deadline acquired players.  Josh Bell was lights out and had many clutch hits and home runs.  He was a one-man wrecking crew and often saved games or won them outright, almost by himself.  

Jake Burger had some great hitting streaks and some heroic moments of his on in August and helped lead the way to the Marlins being victorious.  Had Kim Ng not acquired either Jake Burger or Josh Bell I don’t think the Marlins would even be in playoff talks at all as we start September.  Let’s take a look at the players that really didn’t help the team at all in August and with the hope they turn it around for the last month of the season.  

Joey Wendle 

Marlins shortstop Joey Wendle likely saved his job with hot play in the month of June.  Wendle hit .354 in June and had his only home run of the season along with 3 RBI.  It seemed as if the old Wendle was back, but that was not the case.   Wendle came back down to reality in July at .174 for the month but then really crashed in August.  

Wendle played in 21 games in August and started 17 of them resulting in 54 plate appearances.  Now the biggest impact is not his batting average, as it was around the normal average for many weeks throughout the season, yet still lower.  Wendle has a paltry slash line in August of .154/.167/.231 with an OPS of .398.  That is truly unheard of for an everyday starter for any team.  

The fallout from Wendle’s performance has a real impact on a teams performance and when coupled with other struggling players, makes it very easy for teams to run through the Marlins lineup with little resistance in spots.  Of his 8 hits for the month he had 2 doubles and 1 triple while driving in 4.  Wendle’s streaks of hitless games were much less than Stallings but combined with Stallings that’s 2 easy outs for any opposing pitcher.

Nick Fortes

The other half of the catching platoon left the Marlins with no options as Nick Fortes struggled in August as well.  Fortes is the only other option after Stallings, who we know struggled all month.  Fortes started 14 games and appeared in 17 total for the month.  

Fortes had a slash line of .171/.261/.317 with an OPS of .578 which doesn’t seem so bad when looking at Wendle’s numbers.  He had 1 home run with 2 runs batted in and hit 3 doubles for the month.  His last 7 games of the month Fortes was 1-for-19 for a .053 average. 

Those numbers aren’t as bad as others, especially for a typically non-power position.  The biggest impact of course was the combination of the two different catchers playing miserable baseball for an entire month.  Skip had no options all August for catchers, and the two areas Kim Ng was supposedly looking to upgrade, catcher and short, were full of holes for the entire month.  

Bryan De La Cruz

Marlins outfielder Bryan De La Cruz had a pretty lackluster August as well, and it had a much bigger impact on the Marlins as he is usually in prime spots in the lineup.  De La Cruz hit in several different parts of the lineup as well but had little to no production for the month over his 24 starts and 25 games.  

DLC had a slash line of .215/.277/.366 with an OPS at .643 for the month of August which would be ok if he was a seven to nine hole hitter, but certainly not for someone who hit in the three through six spots in the lineup.  On the positive side he did hit 2 home runs and drove in 7 with 8 doubles, which again would be fine if he was in the bottom of the lineup but not for his spot.  

Both of DLC’s home runs were solo shots and were hit before August 10th so the back 2/3rds of the month were particularly bad as well for DLC.  From August 12th through the end of the month he hit .190 and slugged .276 with only 5 extra base hits in 16 games.  All these players were struggling all month while Jake Burger hit .323 with 3 home runs and 12 RBI and fellow newcomer Josh Bell hit .280 with 8 home runs and 13 RBI.  Talk about a wasted opportunity, the Marlins really lost out in August.