What impact could Ryan Gusto have on the 2026 Miami Marlins starting rotation?

The Miami Marlins know the age old baseball saying as well as every other club:

You can never have too much starting pitching.

However, at least when it comes to filling out that initial 2026 Opening Day starting rotation, that could be just the position the Miami Marlins find themselves in. If the Marlins can manage to end the season without any major injuries, there could be as any ten pitchers entering camp with a reasonable shot at claiming a spot.

In other words, rather than being hard pressed to fill out a single starting rotation, the Miami Marlins might just have enough pitchers to fill out two. And after just two starts in a Miami uniform, I'll say this much about Ryan Gusto.

He is definitely one of those names.

It's about as ringing of an endorsement as I can make, as he would certainly be near the bottom of the list. A 5.05 ERA and 1.368 WHIP do not an ace make, and even though Gusto's 4.11 FIP suggest a fair amount of poor luck, that's not exactly a studly figure either. Yet the ability to gut out five more innings after a three-run first like he did last Friday, and the upside to rack up 8 strikeouts in a quality start like he did in the start before that?

That's more than good enough to lock down a spot in the back of a big league rotation.

Especially since the only thing more certain than the fact the Miami Marlins might have a bevy of better options on paper right now...is that not all of those names will be on hand to hold Gusto off next April. In fact, one of those names is already recently hurt, with Janson Junk leaving yesterday's start with the always unpromising designation of "arm discomfort". Even if that does clear up by the time pitchers and catchers report, it would be a minor miracle if all ten starters were actually healthy come April.

Of course, it's not just injuries that will play a role in whittling down that list, but trades and development decisions as well.

And it's that last bit that gets us into the unknown of territory of what conclusions President of Baseball Operations Peter Bendix and the rest of the Marlins front office will draw from Ryan Gusto proving he's got the stuff to be a big league regular.

Does it make the club more likely to try to cash in on a big name trade candidate like Sandy Alcantara or Edward Cabrera this winter? Or just more likely to deal away a Braxton Garrett or Ryan Weathers as soon as they stay healthy for a month in the spring? Could this be what sends Max Meyer to the bullpen?

More likely, in my humble opinion, is that a solid finish to 2025 for Gusto would spell for bad news for Marlins fans hoping for one of the team's promising rookies to crack the starting five. All it would take is a relatively, and refreshingly, injury free spring to give Miami to cover to kick the service time can down the road another year. That's more time for Gusto to prove his own value, and more time for Robby Snelling and Thomas White to "develop" in the minors.

Bottom-line, the Marlins were already looking at having a lot of options for filling out the starting pitching rotation in 2026. Even in a small sample size, Gusto is making that task even tougher.