I did not expect the Marlins to be contenders in 2021. You probably didn’t, either. And yet, no matter how low we set the bar for them, they’ve repeatedly found creative, often humiliating ways to sink beneath it. The Fish have been impacted by a combination of bad luck on the field and severe, inconveniently timed injuries. Even so, it’s difficult to imagine an alternate universe where they could’ve sniffed the postseason—too many roster deficiencies, not enough urgency at any level of the organization to adjust to adversity.
The Marlins struggled in so many different situations, as you can tell from combing through their season splits.