The Miami Marlins and Clayton McCullough look to build off of their 79-83 2025 campaign. The Marlins got better over the off season and saw a lot of development from their young players last season and into this Spring. While the Marlins projection for wins is still only 72.5 I think that they will clear this number quite easily. Their pitching staff is loaded with high end, proven talent, and their lineup has a lot of emerging, interchangeable pieces. With the few free agent additions, and the overall development of their blossoming stars, the Marlins are well in line to surpass that win total.

So here is the 2026 Miami Marlins outlook.

Total Spending for the Marlins in 2025-26 Free Agency- $21.5M

Pete Fairbanks, $13M

Chris Paddack, $4M

Christopher Morel, $2M

John King, $1.5M

Austin Slater, $1M

Fairbanks had been elite for the Tampa Bay Rays for 5+ seasons recording 90 saves and posting a 3.30 ERA. Fairbanks has been part of winning pitching in 12 playoff games most notably the Rays 2020 World Series run and still has elite advanced metrics. Having a proven closer will be crucial to winning more games in 2026 for the Marlins as it won’t be as much of a revolving door as it has been in years prior.

For Paddack, it’s more of a depth signing. Since his 2019 rookie campaign, things have gone downhill and he has bounced around the majors. The Spring was a great start for Paddack who posted a 0.69 ERA in 13 innings while striking out 12 and only walking 3. Hopefully in a lower leverage role surrounded by elite arms the Marlins can get a glimpse of what Paddack once was.

Morel and Slater bring some much-needed right-handed pop to a lineup –especially an outfield– that features a lot of lefties. King will likely serve a spot role out of the pen for left-on-left situations as he posts a .628 OPS against lefties.

Pitching Staff, One of the League’s Best

It starts with the starters, led by a former Cy Young in Sandy Alcantara the Marlins pitching staff has a chance to be elite yet again. Beyond Sandy we look to three, very promising young starters, Eury Perez who had a great 2025 although the surface level numbers may not agree. Perez has plus-plus stuff and is the future ace of this staff. Then we look to Max Meyer who had an amazing Spring training, working on his most important problem, commanding the strike zone. In 7 inning this spring Meyer had 12 punchies to one walk, a huge sign of what’s to come. Then we look to the back end with Janson Junk and Chris Paddack. Junk has yet to really break out, he has the stuff –especially the breaking ball which ranked in the 91st percentile of run value– he doesn’t walk guys, but he does often get hit around, a trend that continued this spring. He is still a solid 4/5 with room to grow, but a few bad outings and the Marlins could easily look to intriguing young arms like Robby Snelling and Thomas White. And lastly, Chris Paddack, the perfect guy to fill out this rotation.

The Bullpen

The bullpen was not the brightest part of the team last year, but they have some building blocks. Adding Pete Fairbanks to Anthony Bender, Calvin Faucher, Lake Bachar, and Tyler Phillips gives the Marlins bullpen enough stability to finish their starters games.

The Lineup: Stability and Depth

Although Kyle Stowers will start on the IL and Marlins fans will have to wait for Joe Mack to join the big-league team, the lineup is still serviceable, with a lot of interchangeable pieces. Starting in the outfield with Jakob Marsee, Owen Caissie (the MLB’s 42nd ranked prospect received in the Edward Cabrera trade), Heriberto Hernandez, and Griffin Conine. The outfield will have options day to day and will be able to endure the period without their star Kyle Stowers. Moving to the infield, the Marlins have Xavier Edwards, a contact Machine, Otto Lopez a solid infielder, and rounding it out with Connor Norby, Christopher Morel, Graham Pauley, Liam Hicks, and Javier Sanoja.

Beyond Hernandez, Ramirez, and Stowers, the Marlins lineup will rely on getting on base via the walk and the hit and hope for their power bats to drive in runs. Manufacturing runs and winning the low scoring games their elite starting staff keeps them in will be essential to their success.

The lineup isn’t the league’s best, but if they play to their strengths, they can complement their staff just fine.

Final Prediction and Some Bold Predictions

• 81-81
• Sandy Alcantara finishes top 5 in CY-Young voting and stays with the team
• Janson Junk loses his spot to Robby Snelling, potentially moving to the bullpen
• Agustin Ramirez leads the team in home runs
• Owen Caissie in the race for rookie of the year