'Super young, super hungry' Marlins aiming to defy expectations

JUPITER, Fla. -- Development doesn’t stop at the Major League level. If there was a slogan for the 2025 Marlins, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fitting one.

Before training began on the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium back fields for Miami’s first full-squad workout on Monday, the organization held its state of the union.

Principal owner Bruce Sherman’s message to the club was a simple one: Look at the investments being made. The front office has grown exponentially. The latest technology is being incorporated to aid everyone’s development. loanDepot park will see upgraded resources. The Dominican Republic Academy is state of the art. The digs in Jupiter will get a makeover by year’s end.

“I wanted the players to understand that,” Sherman said. “And the message is, ‘We're here to make them better. At the end of the day, sponsorships, tickets and everything is incredibly important, but we're going to engage our fans by winning. We have to win. We have to be sustainable winning. And you are the individuals and the players who are going to make that happen, not me.’”

The Marlins know how tough the National League East is. They’re not oblivious as to what is being said about the club’s chances.

How can Miami compete in the short term while clearly eyeing its long-term future? FanGraphs gives the Marlins 1.5 percent odds to make the postseason. The site projects a 71-91 record, which would be a nine-win improvement from an injury-plagued 2024.

“I try not to get too caught up in what's being said outside,” new manager Clayton McCullough said. “We're going to focus on our building and inside, and what we have going and what we need to do to try to get better. And you know what, let people not talk about us. We'll more than [happily] play the underdog role and just go and do our thing and not worry so much about what people's expectations are of us.”

It's a sentiment shared by third baseman Connor Norby and shortstop Xavier Edwards, two players the organization hopes blossom into franchise cornerstones in 2025. It could be hope springs eternal. It could be the innovative and unorthodox training methods being implemented by a new coaching staff.

While still thin depth-wise, the pitching staff returns Opening Day starter Sandy Alcantara and Ryan Weathers. Righty Eury Pérez is expected back around midseason.

“This foundation is imperative for us to have the kind of success year over year that we know we can get to, that we know every fan wants,” president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. “The foundation is a really key part. And here today, in this Spring Training, we're already starting to see the dividends of that. I can't wait for that to show up on the field. I can't wait for that to show up for the fans.

“It will show up in the form of our players getting better. It will show up in the form of us having better players. And ultimately, it's going to show up in the form of winning games. And that's what this is all about. It's winning games. It's winning as many games as we possibly can for as long as we possibly can.”

The average 2025 seasonal age of Miami’s current 40-man roster (not including left-hander Braxton Garrett, who is on the 60-day injured list) is 26 years old. Only two players are 30 years or older, and they recently celebrated their milestone birthdays.

The average service time is 1 year and 51 days. Thirty-one of the 40 players on the 40-man roster haven't reached two years of service time. Twenty of the 40 haven't reached one year of service time. To say the club is inexperienced would be an understatement.

And yet…

“We're super young, we're super hungry,” Norby said. “ … It's going to be a group I think people are going to be excited to watch play, because they're going to play hard and we're going to put up tough at-bats. We're going to be tough outs, and we're going to play defense well and we're going to pitch the ball well. We're going to do everything that people think we can't do, and we're going to do it at a higher level than what they think. That's for sure.

“But I'm excited, and I know everyone else in this locker room is as well. Guys that want to make a name for themselves, prove themselves, a lot of guys that are hungry, a lot of guys that aren't at their best version of themselves. They’re not at their highest performance level yet. So we're all trying to get there and help the team win, essentially.”