Perhaps they overachieved in getting there, but the 2023 Marlins were a playoff team. However, success for the Marlins is often fleeting. Two years later, they’ve got one of the worst rosters in baseball and appear headed for a last place finish in the National League East.
There are several reasons for the downfall, but the biggest might be the drop off from starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara. Alcantara won the NL’s Cy Young Award in 2022, and while he wasn’t nearly as dominant in 2023, he was still a quality pitcher. As it turned out, one reason for his decline was because he was enduring a worsening strain of his UCL.