The Marlins entered the 2018 season with plans to flip some of their remaining major league veterans for young talent. Not Brad Ziegler—owed a $9 million salary at age 38, he was a sunk cost, not an asset. Then the season began and it looked even more impossible to find a trade partner. Ziegler struggled throughout April and May, briefly holding the closer’s job until a particularly painful loss in San Diego.
He was taken out of that role, and then something funny happened: Brad Ziegler could do no wrong.