3 Miami Marlins droughts that will thankfully end in 2022

Four Miami Marlins pitchers will post double digit wins

One year ago, I actually did make a stab at some bold Miami Marlins predictions for 2021. They were, ummmm, all wrong. And the boldest, and most hilariously wrong, of those bold predictions concerned the club’s pitchers. My flawed take? That the 2006 record would fall, and six Marlins pitchers would win at least 10 games.

Consider my wings clipped in 2022. This year’s prediction: four pitchers will pull off that feat.

The last time that many members of a Miami Marlins pitching staff put together that many wins? That would be 2010, back when a Josh Johnson led staff helped keep Miami in contention all season long. That team won 80 games, the most recent Marlins team to do so. Hanley Ramirez‘s last All-Star effort and Giancarlo Stanton‘s debut certainly helped, but pitching was the engine that drove that 2010 club.

This 2022 rotation is built pretty similarly, relying on three established arms led by an unquestioned ace. Penciling in Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, and Trevor Rogers for at least 10 wins a piece is really more of a question of health than imagination. Well, health and a slightly better Marlins offense. No one on Miami’s roster earned 10 wins last year, not even Sandy. Both he and Rogers actually had losing records despite their brilliance…just further proof pitching wins are a terrible stat.

Just three Marlins pitchers winning 10 or more would break a slump of sorts, as that hasn’t happened since 2014. For you Marlins Jeopardy fans out there, that was the “Mike Dunn” season, when the ever present reliever ended up earning 10 victories out of the bullpen. Equaling that team’s feat is well within reach for the Alcantara/Lopez/Rogers trio as all three are vastly more talented than any healthy pitcher on that 2014 team.

But it’s not just about that trio, is it? Young arm talent abounds in the Miami Marlins organization. Edward Cabrera and Jesus Luzardo project to be in the mix from the start, and Max Meyer won’t be that far behind. If not traded, Elieser Hernandez could even end up pushing for double digit wins if given a season’s worth of appearances. If just one of them breaks through to back up the Big Three, that’s four 10-plus win winners right there.

Something that will be all the easier if…