Miami Marlins Need To Make Themselves An Aroldis Chapman

If the Miami Marlins are going to contend, they need to look at turning one of their starting pitching prospects into an elite closer.

Remember the last time the Miami Marlins had one of the game’s best closers? Generally a hallmark of the game’s top teams? Someone who enjoyed your full confidence that Miami would walk off the field with a win when they took the mound?

Still wondering? Not surprising. It has been quite a while.

The answer is arguably the last time the Miami Marlins were actually expected to be one of those top teams- the 2004 season.

That year, the Marlins signed free agent Armando Benitez to a relative bargain of a contract, and watched him produce a 1.29 ERA while pacing the NL with 47 saves. A case could be made for 2005 as well, when Miami paid Todd Jones nearly $2.5 million less for a 2.10 ERA and 40 saves. However, despite a depressed market for his services, Benitez brought a much greater aura of dominance to the mound than Jones ever did.

If the 2004 Miami Marlins made it to the 9th inning with a lead, they were going to win the game.

Marlins fans have been waiting sixteen years to feel that way again. Sure, there have been some other successful relievers to close out games for Miami since. Steve Cishek was criminally undervalued by the organization. In 2016, AJ Ramos made it to the All-Star Game. However, both were more high wire acts than high level talents. Perhaps not at the level of heart-attack king Antonio Alfonseca, the Dragonslayer, but too often a wild ride.

Traditionally, the organizational history of the Miami Marlins closer role has been defined by three narratives. And, inarguably, the Marlins are going to need a new narrative if they are going to become perennial contenders.

Before getting to that new narrative though, let’s take a look at those past ones.