Recap: How the front office rating works
This is one in a series of assessments of the performances of front offices for the 2024 season. Each front office is given a score based on the total Wins Above Average of the players they either traded for, signed via free agency or extension, or promoted from their farm system, since the conclusion of the 2023 post-season.
A front office’s score also includes the total Wins Above Average of players traded away or lost to free agency since the end of the 2023 post-season. The front offices are being presented in order of their total value from No. 30 (worst) all the way to No. 1 (best).
These ratings do not necessarily reflect the final standings. Front offices are measured based only on the talent they acquired or lost during the past 12 months. Players on multi-year contracts, or already under team control, don’t count toward this rating.
T-28. Miami Marlins, Peter Bendix, President of Baseball Operations, -11.5
Bendix was a successful general manager in Tampa Bay prior to accepting the Miami offer, one that immediately came with controversy. The Marlins expected Bendix to oversee the operations being run by general manager Kim Ng. Apparently, somebody forgot to tell Ng, who resigned upon learning she was suddenly being given a boss.
It was a bad look because Ng had been the game’s first and only female team chief executive, and also because the Marlins were coming off a season in which they made the playoffs. Bendix’s actions during his first season in Miami didn’t help things.
He had a peripatetic first season that included personnel moves impacting 79 major leaguers either coming or going. If that sounds like a lot, there’s good reason: only the Chicago White Sox (72) and San Francisco Giants (70) even approached that level of player churn.
And Bendix didn’t just tinker at the edges. Defending batting champion Luis Arraez was sent to San Diego for four minor leaguers, prime reliever Tanner Scott also went to the Padres in a separate deal, and Jon Berti, Miami’s second most valuable position player during the Ng regime, found himself in the Bronx.
To fill in the blanks, Bendix turned to under-performing veterans, usually with lackluster results. He acquired former top prospect Nick Gordon from Minnesota for relief pitcher Steven Okert, and all Gordon gave him was a .227 average with no power in 95 games.
He also signed former AL batting champion Tim Anderson, who had been released by the White Sox. Why anybody would want a player who couldn’t make the 2024 White Sox is hard to say; Anderson would go on to hit .214 in 65 games.
The net impact on Miami of the Gordon and Anderson arrivals? It cost Miami nearly five games, according to Wins Above Average.
Five most impactful Bendix moves
Transaction | Net Impact (Wins Above Average) |
|---|---|
Acquired Nick Gordon in a trade with Minnesota | -2.6 |
Signed free agent Tim Anderson | -2.3 |
Traded Bryan De La Cruz to Pittsburgh | +1.8 |
Purchased Roddery Munoz from Pittsburgh | -1.6 |
Claimed Emmanuel Rivera off waivers from Baltimore | -1.4 |
Bendix’s big statistical win was free agent infielder Otto Lopez, who hit. 270 in his first full-time gig and played good defense. That created a +1.2 impact on the Marlins. But Lopez was one of only two arrivals who generated at least +1.0 WAA for Miami, against five -1.0 or worse pickups.
Of the 79 transactions that shuffled players around, only 31 worked out to Miami’s benefit against 43 that were negative, with the remaining five producing neutral value. Add it all up and you get a 62-100 record and a 22-game free fall in the standings. It’s hard to spin that into anything positive for Bendix’s front office, so I won’t try.
Previous Rankings:
2024 front office rankings: 30, the Los Angeles Angels and GM Perry Minasian
2024 front office rankings: T-28, the Colorado Rockies and GM Bill Schmidt
T-28, Miami Marlins, Peter Bendix, president of baseball operations, -11.5
Next: 27. Chicago White Sox, Chris Getz, senior vice president and general manager, -10.2