Cote: Strobe lights? Trajekt Arc? How Marlins' faith in player development is working

Miami Herald

16-07-2025

Things are looking up for the Miami Marlins.
Those eight words alone are a bit of a revelation, an epiphany, a parade of syllables rarely uttered or thought in South Florida — especially by myself, a forefront critic. Or by Marlins fans whose collective frustration is reflected by a ballpark two-thirds empty most games.
'If I were a fan I would be skeptical because they're not seeing it. It's been behind the scenes,' Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix told us Wednesday. 'Now we're starting to see that show up on the field. I hope fans are starting to see the vision. That we have a direction and are going in the right direction.'
Marlins history has seen two thoroughly aberrant World Series titles in an otherwise barren landscape, the crowns rented and followed by fire sales and more losing.
What Bendix is tasked with building, 'Our fans have never experienced. The Marlins have won 90 games twice in 33 years and never won the division. Our goal is to win the division multiple times — a sustained period of time when we're in the playoffs every year.'
A column of mine on March 24 flew under the headline, 'To Bruce Sherman as low-hope Miami Marlins open 33rd season: Spend more or sell team.' I stand behind the broad belief, still, that Sherman, into his eighth season as primary owner after buying the team from Jeffrey Loria, has consistently not spent enough to compete in the big leagues.
Fans were distracted from the low player payrolls with something shiny as Sherman partnered with Derek Jeter to have a popular star presence out front. He later broke ground by hiring Kim Ng as the sport's first female general manager. But both are gone because neither could make magic of Sherman's low-spending model that still includes the most penurious payroll in MLB in 2025.
Credit where it is due, though.
The Marlins in the past month or so prior to the All-Star Break fashioned an eight-game win streak, the club's longest since 2008. They won 11 in a row on the road. They ended on a 14-6 run that saw them vault from last to third in the NL East, vaulting ahead of both Washington (which fired its manager) and nemesis Atlanta.
The team of zero expectations, the youngest team in MLB, has lifted to a credible 44-51, with .500 and a run at a wild-card spot no longer laughable. And all of this with ace Sandy Alcantara wallowing in a 7.22 earned run average.
Don't get this wrong. I'm not throwing a parade for 44-51.
The standard is set high in this busy sports market. It was set by the Dolphins' epic (if distant ) glory days, by the Hurricanes' past football dominance, by the Big 3 Heat, and now on ice by the Florida Panthers.
South Florida fans demand a lot and should. May it always be so.
That standard is why I don't believe in praising mediocrity.
Not when the Dolphins are a wild-card team a couple of years in a row but still fail to end the club's quarter-century drought of no playoffs wins.
Not when Heat climbs out of the consolation play-in tournament only to get swept in the first round.
Not when Inter Miami has the best regular season record in MLS and sees championship hopes fizzle with an embarrassing quick playoff exit.
And not now with a Marlins team improved but still 44-51 as the season's second half begins Friday at home vs. Kansas City.
Again, though: Credit where, and when, it is due.
The goal always is fairness in criticism so let's exercise that now. Although just at the start of the climb, the Marlins are earning faith by degrees.
This was a season mired in last place as expected in the division, a team 16 games under .500. A team swept at home by an historically bad Colorado team that was 9-50. A team going nowhere, with crowds reflecting that. The same ol' same ol'
Then something happened.
A light begin to flicker in the dark. The team's vision — one of youth, player development, prospects blooming — began to show.
Miami's top 30 farm system prospects include 19 obtained in the past year, 13 via trade.
Bendix has done this before, succeeded at this before. He made the Tampa Bay rays a winner on a budget.
'I've seen how this works. I know how to do this,' Bendix said. 'I've seen things we can do better, in player development. Innovation. Investing in technology, in culture; behind-the-scenes stuff. We're starting to see it show up. With young players comes inconsistency and sometimes frustrating stretches of play. But young players can turn the page quickly, bounce back. We've seen them get much better.'
It wasn't popular when the Marlins traded Jazz Chisholm to the Yankees. But the player Miami got, catcher Agustin Ramirez, has 14 homers at the break and 35 extra-base hits in 71 games, a Marlins rookie record. He seems a future star.
Trading away starting pitcher Trevor Rogers seemed dubious. But a player they got in return, left fielder Kyle Stowers, just played in the All-Star Game in Atlanta. Third baseman Connor Norby also came in the trade. The Marlins have seen great improvement in his defensive reaction time at a new position by his wearing goggles with strobe lights in them during practice — an innovation of the Marlins' coaching staff.
Miami had two players in the MLB Futures Game this past weekend, including 2023 top draft pick Thomas White, a 6-5, 240-pound lefty pitcher who, at age 20, also is seen as a future star.
Starter Eury Perez, 22, is a rising star now, seen as a future rotation ace.
The behind-the-scenes stuff Bendix refers to includes millions spent on a 35-acre training academy in the Dominican Republic, and also a major investment in two Trajekt Arc pitching machines, which are leased for $15,000 to $20,000 per month. The machines use a hologram image to exactly replicate the speed and movement of any major-league pitcher — including the one the Marlins will face in their next game.
'George Lucas stuff,' said manager Clayton McCullough with a 'Star Wars' reference.
'Our model and method for getting young players better is working,' said Bendix, indications of tangible proof beginning to show. 'We have less margin for error [than higher-spending teams], but we're all playing the same game, 9-on-9. There's a lot of different ways to be successful.'
A harsh reality is that some teams spend big and have a bounteous farm system, the champion Los Angeles Dodgers a prime example.
There will come a time when Sherman, the budget owner, needs to strategically open the wallet, whether it be for a big contract extension for a young cornerstone player such as Agustin Ramirez or for a key free agent bat.
Meantime, credit where it's due, because those eight words have been a long time coming:
Things are looking up for the Miami Marlins.