Miami Marlins: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

Miami Marlins: 2020 Preview and Prediction

As for the rest of the Marlin rotation, we have Caleb Smith who was very good for this team last year, we have Jose Urena supposed to get moved back into the rotation, we have two young pitchers who have shown a lot of promise in Pablo Lopez and Jordan Yamamoto, and we have two big prospects waiting in the wings in Nick Neidert and Sixto Sanchez.

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Smith has a very impressive spin rate on his fastball which gets him a bunch of strikeouts even though he’s about mid-range velocity. Yamamoto is in the same ballpark as an even slower tosser but with an impressive rate of spin and ability to get strikeouts. As for Urena, it’s going to be interesting to see what he does. He’s been given another chance at the rotation after being moved to the pen at the end of last season, and before that he was at the top of their rotation. So, Urena is certainly a guy who’s a bit all over the place right now and is looking to settle in somewhere.

Concerning the Marlin bullpen, they brought on some solid veteran arms in Brad Boxberger and Brandon Kintzler, both of whom are lively trade candidates if they have good seasons. Adam Conley is also in the mix to be traded even as a Marlins homegrown. There are some impressive arms in the Marlins’ pen, but this season will most definitely be about developing the starters.

This is a team that already traded away two of its better young guns in Zac Gallen and Trevor Richards and is now looking to regain that edge at the starter position for the future of their franchise.

I have the Marlins finishing at the bottom of the NL East once again (65-97 record before the delayed opening), so I had/have them improving on last season. This is a team that is going to do a fair amount of winning. This will be a situation where you know they’re a bad team, but you look up and they’ve actually had an impressive month to your utter amazement.

That’s in large part due to Don Mattingly in the dugout. He was an under-the-radar Manager of the Year candidate last season, and I would expect nothing less out of him this season. The Marlins are going to flash at times with the young talent they have, so be ready for them to play the role of spoiler for somebody in 2020.