Three takeaways from Miami Marlins Front Office comments during media availability

The 2025 Miami Marlins are going nowhere, but the hope is for the franchise to go somewhere, and quickly.

That's about the size of it from Marlins spring training, per majority owner Bruce Sherman and President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix. Though there were some excellent chuckles where Sherman bemoaned being in the NL East, and cited minor league free agency as proof of spending on the roster. Aside from those gems? You could honestly leave now and be about as well informed as the group of reporters was when Sherman finished holding court during his annual media availability. Besides, we've already got your page view.

Still here? Alright, I suppose there is room to dive a little deeper. Sadly, the direct questions I was hoping to see Sherman grilled over were not asked. That being said, based on the answers given, no direct answers were going to be given even if they were. Speaking "Marlin" is a skill, and it is one that far too many South Florida baseball fans have had ample opportunity to hone and develop over the years. So beneath all the fluff, which there was plenty of, a good deal was said about what Marlins fans should, or rather shouldn't, expect from the team this season.

Don't Expect Much Hitting

Plenty was said about how this Miami Marlins team was going to be different than last year's model. Faster. More hustle. Better defense. All three of those points were made multiple times. Which all sounds great. Who doesn't want their team to be better equipped to stretch a double into a triple, or to make less errors, or to record a few more outs above average? However, there was one thing that never came up:

Hitting.

Nothing was said about scoring. No boost in power, no greater ability to knock in runs. Everyone is apparently going to try hard, which is far better than the opposite. In terms of offensive firepower though? It never came up, aside from optimistic comments about Connor Norby's bat.

No Timeline On Contention

Bruce Sherman does expect his 2025 Miami Marlins to win a lot of games, and more than the projections call for. So there's that.

Unfortunately, there was a very palpable sense that Mr. Sherman was aware that anything over fifty does technically qualify as "a lot" in the general sense of the phrase. Being more charitable, outperforming their projection by even just five or six games would qualify as "a lot" more than expected. That's still a Marlins team winning less than 70 games.

Progress? Yes. Competitive? No.

The theme of progress was the next thing trumpeted the most after the increase in defense, hustle, and speed, if not even more so. It's all about getting better, which is the glass half full side of the "always having conversations" catchphrase Bendix has become most associated with. The organization is dedicated to improving players, at all levels. Much was said, naturally, of the money that we don't see being poured into development areas. And believe me, there was plenty of "Salty Sherman" making clear that resources were expended on this. Bigger gym. Bigger front office. Not all about free agents, even though they did sign some, darn-it!

Don't get me wrong. Progress is great. Nowhere to go but up for last year's team. Yet it was hard to shake the feeling that developing players was the ceiling for this franchise rather than those players being developed to be part of a winning Marlins core.

Sandy Is Gone

Admittedly, that second takeaway on this Miami Marlins media session could be colored by the unescapable truth that the clock is ticking on the Sandy Alcantara era.

Both Bendix and Sherman were given abundant opportunity to in any kind of meaningful way commit to even the general possibility of Sandy remaining a Marlin. The question was posed multiple times in multiple ways. They failed to do so at every juncture.

Sandy will pitch Opening Day. Marlins fans should be excited to see Sandy pitch against Paul Skenes on Opening Day. Sandy is really good, healthy and better than ever.

End of list for certain statements. Beyond that, you're on your own, and every successive Sandy start following the Marlins home opener should be viewed as icing on the cake of one of the greatest careers in team history, and really the only great career of the Sherman era.

Comments that were made acknowledged that Sandy was on the team today, but that the future couldn't be commented on. The most galling and revealing moment came when Sherman acknowledged that Sandy is the franchise, saying "we get it". You could almost hear the derision in the owners voice, and it doesn't exactly feel like a case of overanalyzing to even infer a sense of frustration that the player that is "the franchise" is also the most expensive.

Otherwise, more of the same. Oh, almost forgot. Clayton McCullough apparently gave the best speech Sherman has ever heard from a Marlins manager. So no need to question any offseason personnel choices.

None of this is to say this Marlins team can't head in the right direction, or that many of the moves and signings could pay off. This could well be a new Marlins era, a new Marlins front office.

As for the owner though? Same old Bruce.