The Miami Marlins will announce the names of at least two Class of 2026 inductees to their Legends Hall of Fame during FanFest on Saturday at loanDepot Park. 

Since the Marlins Legends Hall of Fame was established just last year, only four people have been enshrined: Luis Castillo, a starter on Miami’s 2003 World Series team; Jeff "Mr. Marlin" Conine, who was on both the 1997 and 2003 champion teams; and the managers for each team, Jim Leyland (1997) and Jack McKeon (2003).

The guys who helped bring those World Series titles to Miami should get be taken care of first.

Not only are championship teams valued in any sports, with the Marlins, one could argue it means even more, since the Marlins never even made the playoffs aside from those two seasons before 2020.

The Marlins have a lot of worthy players from each team: Livan Hernandez and Gary Sheffield from 1997, and Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera from 2003.

We’ve decided to highlight one pitcher and one hitter.

It was a tough choice to decide between Beckett and Willis, who had the third-highest career WAR -- 17.2 -- with the Marlins of any pitcher, according to Baseball Reference.

But ultimately, Beckett gets the nod because of Game 6.

Beckett pitched a complete game in a World Series clincher— in Yankee Stadium, no less -- and that feat hasn’t been duplicated in any stadium in the 22 World Series since.

Of course, that performance would only carry so much weight if the rest of Beckett’s Marlins career wasn’t up to par. 

But Beckett made the most of the rest of his time in Miami, going 15-8 with a 3.38 ERA in 2005.

That proved to be his final season with the Fish. 

In November 2005, the Marlins traded Beckett to the Boston Red Sox, where he had several more quality seasons, winning 20 games in 2007 and getting another ring that October.

Beckett is one of Miami’s 10 best pitchers of all-time by WAR, and his postseason heroics set him apart.

There’s a difference between best Marlins players ever and best players to play for the Marlins.

If this were the latter, Miguel Cabrera would be in this spot, since he is one of the best baseball players of his generation and played a big part in that 2003 championship team.

But because it’s the former, Lowell gets the nod.

A three-time All-Star while in Miami, Lowell in 2003 hit 32 homers and drove in 105 runs in the regular season.

In the playoffs, he struggled in the World Series, batting .196, but he was excellent in the National League series that proceeded it, hitting  .333, with three homers and six RBI in seven games, including a go-ahead pinch-hit homer at the top of the 11th in Game 1 at Wrigley Field.

If the Marlins didn’t win that game and if everything else about the series happened the same way, Miami wouldn't have won the pennant.

Lowell ended his Marlins career with 143 homers and 578 RBI, leading the franchise in both stats by the time he was traded to the Red Sox in the same deal that sent Beckett to Beantown.

Had the Marlins not received Hanley Ramirez, who will no doubt be a future Marlins Hall of Famer in his own right, that deal would have gone down as one of the worst in Marlins history and maybe one of the worst of the 2000s anywhere in baseball.

If the manager of the 1997 team is in, then the general manager should be, too.

Unlike Jim Leyland, who was only in Miami for two seasons, Dombrowski was there when the franchise started playing on 1993 and stayed through 2001, helping put together a good chunk of the 2003 roster, which included Beckett, Lowe and Legends Hall of Famers Castillo and Conine.

Anybody reading this in Boston or Philadelphia might cringe, but Dombrowski’s legacy in Miami is secure.

The first female GM in the history of any major North American sport was hired by the Miami Marlins.

That’s something the franchise should take pride in, and make no mistake, the Marlins hired Ng because she was qualified.

She spent 30 years in the game before the Marlins hired her in 2020, including 14 as the assistant GM for the Dodgers and Yankees.

Inducting Ng into the team’s Hall of Fame would be a way to embrace what the Marlins accomplished by hiring her -- they made the playoffs under her watch in 2023. Her enshrinement would also maybe help the team make amends for trying to demote her after the season, which prompted her to resign.

The Marlins could induct founder Wayne Huizenga as well, but since he’s best known for blowing up the 1997 team to make a profit, it probably wouldn’t be the best PR choice.

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