Pressure Point: Marlins finally giving fans reason for hope

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Welcome to Pressure Point by Craig Davis, commentary and analysis from a longtime observer and reporter of the South Florida sports scene and its teams.

Jack McKeon had a saying he repeated often during his second tour as manager of the Marlins in 2011: “The worm will turn.”

Ol’ Trade Jack was betting that the team’s fortunes would eventually change for the better.

They never did in that 72-90 season. Nor have they in the eight seasons that followed with the move to Marlins Park the following year.

The Miami Marlins haven’t had a winning record during their time in Little Havana. The recently completed 105-loss season was the second-worst in team history.

But the long-downtrodden franchise may finally be ready to fulfill McKeon’s prophesy. Entering the third year of the Derek Jeter/Bruce Sherman regime, there are signs the worm is beginning to turn.

Moves add pop to lineup

The moves Monday that netted proven power hitters Jesus Aguilar and Jonathan Villar – both were All-Stars within the past two years – without sacrificing any of the valuable young talent in their system were the latest indications that times are changing.

Notably, they were willing to pay Villar a salary expected to be in the neighborhood of $10.4 million next year when his previous team, the Orioles, were not.

Villar isn’t a past-prime package. He’s 28, a switch-hitter coming off a season in which he batted .274 with 24 home runs and 73 RBI while playing all 162 games for Baltimore. He’s a legitimate leadoff candidate who had 40 stolen bases and scored 111 runs.

His WAR rating of 4.0 last season was the same as Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo, and better than Michael Conforto, Gleyber Torres and Jose Altuve, according to Fangraphs.

Villar can also play throughout the infield and in the outfield.

Miami gave up minor-league lefty Easton Lucas to get him. Lucas wasn’t among their top 30 prospects.

Aguilar, 29, comes as a bargain, the slugging first baseman claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay. He is projected to get about $2.5 million via arbitration and is one season removed from hitting 35 homers for the Brewers.

Granted that was playing in Miller Park – see Christian Yelich’s power numbers in Milwaukee compared to Marlins Park. But Aguiliar offers the sort of pop Miami’s punchless offense lacked the past two seasons.

Roster trending upward

It is always a bit surreal when the Marlins open their checkbook. Before Monday they had the projected lowest payroll in the minors.

But Jeter and Co. already made the surprising move of eating $22 million to dump useless lefty Wei-Yin Chen to open a roster spot for a young player who can be a future asset.

Acquiring Villar and Aguilar were smart yet thrifty baseball moves for genuine major-leaguers who can upgrade the most anemic lineup in the game. Villar essentially inherits the salary the Marlins were paying Starlin Castro, and there are more dimensions to his game.

This is not to suggest the Marlins are ready to challenge the World Series champion Nationals and NL East-winning Braves in the division.

Nonetheless, these upgrades fit into a trend of encouraging signs that Jeter’s rebuilding plan is headed in the right direction.

Notably, 24 of the players on the current 40-man roster have been obtained since the ownership change just over two years ago.

Presumably, an effort will be made to address needs in the bullpen and for another bat in the outfield at the Winter Meetings next week in San Diego.

For the first time in too long there is reason to watch instead of averting your eyes.

Patience showing promise

Suddenly, Marlins followers finding reason to feel frisky on Twitter for a change. Good to see their faces unobscured by paper bags.

Everyone else responds with mild shock spiced by well-worn digs. What, the blind squirrel got an acorn and didn’t choke on it?

The Marlins, with their long track record of being chintzy and out of step with the rest of baseball, will be regarded as suspects until they prove otherwise. As well they should.


They don’t have to be forever Sisyphus in knickers, though.

Jeter’s rebuilding plan is starting to take on an encouraging form. Ultimately, the fate of this rebuilding effort will depend on the young prospects panning out.

The best indication is that the farm system, which was as empty as the bleachers on a weeknight when Jeter started, is now ranked fourth by mlb.com.

There are intriguing arms at all levels of the system, and now some promising hitters are rising toward the top of the pipeline.

That is not to say they are all budding All-Stars. And the process of blossoming young talent is always painstaking and often painful, as evidenced by the struggles of Lewis Brinson and Isan Diaz to find their way in the majors.

Nonetheless, on the brink of a new decade, there is reason to believe the Marlins outlook is beginning a turn for the better and to actually look forward to spring training.

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