This Miami Marlins season has already taken a few wild turns. By the end of May, the club was eight games under .500 and looked buried.
Then June arrived, and Miami put together the best month in baseball. Just as quickly, a historically bad losing streak knocked the air out of the run.
Even so, there’s still a case to be made that this year can count as a success.
A big reason is the number of players who have stepped into roles nobody saw coming. The Marlins have leaned on several unexpected difference makers, and the biggest surprise of them all has been Otto Lopez.
Lopez is leading all of MLB entering Friday night in hits, batting average, and doubles, and he also made the All-Star team. For a player Miami picked up off waivers, that’s a remarkable turn.
The Blue Jays and Giants let him go despite only 10 career MLB at-bats, and he made the most of those chances by collecting six hits. That tiny sample now looks like an early hint of what was coming.
He had already changed the conversation after hitting .270 with 20 stolen bases as a rookie in 2024, but last season brought him back down. This year, once expectations dipped again, Lopez exploded. He’s been one of the best stories in baseball and has clearly reset the bar for what Miami can expect from him going forward.
Liam Hicks belongs in the breakout conversation too, and his rise has come from nowhere offensively. The sophomore catcher was a modest hitter as a rookie, posting six homers, 45 RBI and a .692 OPS last season, numbers that seemed to define his future. Instead, he has blown past that ceiling.
Hicks now leads the team in homers and RBI, and he has done it with an astonishing 1/1 B:K ratio. Even more surprising, he hasn’t walked much either.
His 98th percentile strikeout and whiff rate have fueled the jump, and he’s become one of the most unexpected success stories on the roster. Whether he can carry this into next season is still unanswered, but this year has already been a major shock.
Max Meyer has also forced his way into the picture, though his case is a little different. The 2020 third-overall pick came into the league with real expectations after a strong minor league career, so he doesn’t fit the pure surprise category the same way Lopez does. Still, after injuries threatened to derail his season, Meyer has been ace-level when available.
He’s dealt with injuries throughout his career, but this year he has set high marks in every major statistical category. He has also logged 111 innings, something he had only done twice since being drafted.
His MLB ERA sat above 5.00 over the last two seasons, so what he’s done now feels like a distant memory. He can’t quite claim the title of most surprising Marlin because the hype was already there, but after his first All-Star game, he’s firmly on the list.
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Marlins Fans Wont Like The Latest Deadline Trade Idea
With the deadline approaching, the Marlins keep showing up in speculative trade chatter, and this latest idea would ask Miami to part with a young catcher who has quietly become one of its more reliable run-producing threats. Liam Hicks has four years of club control left, which only makes him more valuable in a season when the Marlins are still trying to sort out their long-term core and avoid selling off too much of it for a quick fix.
The White Sox angle is easy to understand, given their need for catching help after Kyle Teels left ankle sprain and the lack of offense they have gotten from Edgar Quero and Drew Romo. But the proposal also includes Braxton Garrett, who is working in Triple-A Jacksonville after two rough MLB starts earlier in the year, and it asks Miami to weigh present-day depth against a return built around Hagen Smith, Chicagos No. 5 prospect and a 2024 first-round pick who is still not viewed as ready for the majors. [Read more 🡒]
This Marlins Trade Idea Could Finally Force The Front Office's Hand
The Marlins have spent the summer looking for a way to shore up a pitching staff that has been their clearest weak spot, and the trade market is starting to look like the most obvious path. With the August 3 deadline approaching, Miami is still below .500 and close enough to the wild-card chase to justify a move, but not so secure that the front office can afford to stand pat.
One name that has surfaced in the conversation brings both upside and risk, which is exactly the kind of calculus front offices face this time of year. Miami would be trying to add a starter who could steady the rotation, but the appeal comes with enough uncertainty that any deal would have to be weighed carefully against the clubs current place in the standings and the urgency of the moment. [Read more 🡒]