MIAMI — The Miami Marlins have posted the best record in baseball since the start of June, going 23-8 to climb to 49-42 and claim the third National League Wild Card spot heading into a first-half-closing homestand against Seattle and Cleveland.
The turnaround has been comprehensive. Miami has allowed the fewest runs in the National League and second-fewest overall, posted the best OPS in the Majors among teams that don’t play at Coors Field, and played the third-best defense after ranking in the bottom five through the end of May. The club’s playoff odds have risen to one-in-three, according to FanGraphs.
“Maybe it took us getting our butts kicked three days in a row in Citi Field to send shockwaves through [us] a little bit, that we can decide how we want our season to go,” manager Clayton McCullough told MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola at the end of June. “It’s one thing to play well, and for someone to beat you. It’s another to just not perform up to your capabilities and [up to] a standard that we’re trying to set here for ourselves. And so after some point, you just have to get fed up with it, and have to go play better.”
The Marlins are the first team to ever go from eight games under .500 to six or more games over in the span of a single calendar month, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The pitching staff’s ERA dropped from 4.38 through the end of May — 21st in MLB — to 3.53 in June and July, second-best in the Majors. The bullpen’s walk rate fell from 14% in April, second-highest in baseball, to 8% in June, eighth-lowest. All-Star Max Meyer has anchored the rotation, while Sandy Alcantara leads baseball in starts of six or more innings. Reliever Michael Petersen, the 32-year-old claimed off waivers from Atlanta last summer, struck out 37% of hitters in June by leaning more heavily on his fastball.
The lineup surged from a .693 OPS through May — 22nd in the Majors — to .833 in June and July, second-best in baseball. The return of Kyle Stowers from a hamstring injury and the departure of first baseman Christopher Morel opened space for outfielder Heriberto Hernández, a Minor League free agent ahead of 2025 who carries a 117 OPS+ in parts of two seasons with Miami. Xavier Edwards and Otto López have formed arguably the best middle-infield duo in the game, producing an .870 OPS from those two spots — more than 100 points clear of second-best Kansas City and the best since the Corey Seager-Marcus Semien pairing on the 2023 World Series champion Rangers.
Defensively, the Marlins flipped from minus-10 Fielding Run Value through May, tied for 26th, to plus-11 in June and July, tied for third. The catalyst was a catching change: Opening Day catcher Agustín Ramírez, who had been the weakest defensive catcher in the National League at minus-17 Fielding Runs, was sent to Triple-A on May 4. Prospect Joe Mack replaced him and has posted plus-5 Fielding Runs, throwing out a tied-for-best-in-baseball 16 runners attempting to steal.
Miami sits just four games behind the Braves in the NL East. The Marlins open their homestand against the AL West-leading Mariners on Tuesday night, with a Cleveland series to follow before the All-Star break.