Why The Miami Marlins Just Signed Cal Quantrill

Just like that, the Miami Marlins have finally spent some money on the 2025 MLB roster.

Welcome to South Florida, Cal Quantrill! Quiet down, Marlins fans!

Far more important than sending the meme makers looking for more material though is what this does for the Miami Marlins starting rotation. Before this signing, there were just enough names to fill it out. Former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, followed by some combination of Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers, Max Meyer, and Valente Bellozo. That's technically a full rotation of pitchers with MLB experience. Throw in the fact that one of those names is just keeping Eury Perez' seat warm until he returns this summer and...it could have been fine. Especially if you keep in mind the organization doesn't really care about the whole contending thing in 2025.

Unless of course even one of those names got hurt. Or even caught a cold. Really missed time for any reason, for any amount of time.

If you'll recall, pitchers not being available was something that happened quite often for the Marlins last season. According to the team's Baseball Reference page, twenty different pitchers started a game for Miami last season. Twenty. That's troubling enough in its own right, but then a closer look at last season's most reliable arms makes things downright terrifying. Of Miami's top six leaders in games started last season, three of them are no longer with the organization. Depth was thin even before the offseason losses, and loomed as one of the biggest challenges facing the 2025 Marlins.

Sure, Sandy being back helps, but not even another Cy Young winning season from him would fill all those holes. He's still only only pitching every fifth day, and everyone else in the rotation comes with serious consistency and durability questions. Once the front office needs to break the emergency glass though? All unproven options. Younger arms who would either benefit from all the minor league seasoning they could get to aid their development...or from being stashed away in the minors as long as possible to keep the service time clocks from starting.

Having Cal Quantrill in the fold provides a much needed level of protection against that glass needing to be broken. A reliable enough innings eater just in general, when compared to the rest of Miami's non-Alcantara arms, dude arguably slots in as the No. 2 man in the rotation. In a season being offered up to development, this kind of move was essential. In fact, they should probably give some serious thought to making another one. The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson did suggest in a recent report that the Marlins might add multiple arms.

Even if the production isn't entirely there, all of those cliches about veteran intangibles come into play. As the saying goes, they're cliches for a reason. This a very young team, and a reliable veteran like Quantrill can offer a great deal just by leading by example this spring.

One other added bonus: that extra time for young pitchers to develop does not necessarily mean a full season. Should Quantrill produce like is capable of, he would easily become the most likely to be traded asset in Peter Bendix's trade deadline arsenal. The Marlins have typically shied away from the pay to play approach of acquiring prospects, to the everlasting frustration of fans calling for ownership to spend more on the ballclub. This move is a welcome step in a smarter direction.

Bottom-line, with this signing, the Miami Marlins get to say something they haven't been able to say in at least a year:

They're a better team today than they were yesterday. Good move.