The Miami Marlins need to shore up first and third base. Young talent must prove ready or upgrades are urgently needed.
The Miami Marlins don't have a bad baseball team.
In fact, they might have a good one, which isn't something this fanbase has grown used to over the past 33 years.
But the Marlins would be better if they did something to address either of their corner infield positions, and although there's still time to do that before spring training, the clock is ticking.
If Opening Day were tomorrow, Miami would start Connor Norby at third base and Graham Pauley at first.
Norby has never played more than 88 games in a season, and Pauley only has 75 MLB games under his belt. So far, neither one of them has been remarkable offensively. Norby had an OPS+ of 90 last season (10 points below the league average), and Pauley's was 88. Both players could end up becoming quality major leaguers, with each being only 25 years old.
But this is a Marlins team that was playing meaningful baseball in September last season, lost nobody to free agency, and, by all logic should be a realistic playoff contender in 2026.
Miami is known for its pitching, but its lineup has plenty of potential.
Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee and Owen Caissie could be one of the best young outfields in baseball.
Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards make up a formidable middle infield, and at catcher, the Marlins have Agustín Ramírez, who finished sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting last season, and Joe Mack, who could be a serious contender for that honor this season.
The two corner infield positions most needed addressing, and so far, the only thing the Marlins have done was sign Christopher Morel, who hit 26 home runs in 2023 but was a - Wins Above Replacement player in 2024 and 2025.
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who hadn't signed a free agent to a multi-year deal in almost a decade, signed one of the top free-agent first basemen on the market in Ryan O'Hearn.
At third base, the Cincinnati Reds signed Eugenio Suarez to a reasonable one-year, $15 million deal. The Marlins had been linked to Suarez, and it's fair to wonder if a team that finished 27th out of 30 in home runs last season should have made a better effort for a guy who hit 49 last year.
Pretty much all of the top third basemen on the market are gone, and although the Marlins still have a shot at a first baseman, such as Nathaniel Lowe or Paul Goldschmidt, if the Marlins don't act and end up not making the playoffs, people might wonder what might have been if Miami had acted sooner.
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