Manager in place, this is Marlins' vision for 2025

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MIAMI -- Much of Monday’s introductory press conference naturally focused on new manager Clayton McCullough, but that didn’t deter conversation of the Marlins’ vision for 2025 and beyond.

While the 2024 win-loss record didn’t reflect it, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix saw progress during his first year at the helm and expects success to come sooner rather than later. A lot of that belief stems from less heralded behind-the-scenes work done with ownership’s resources and investment. That encompasses everything from filling front-office and player-development roles throughout the organization to improving Minor League complexes to adding technology.

McCullough, whose Dodgers consistently had one of baseball’s highest payrolls but didn’t win a World Series in a full season until 2024, sees common themes among successful ballclubs that aren’t determined by monetary value: attention to detail, commitment to preparation and control of things within one’s control. The Dodgers, much like the Rays, are considered the standard when it comes to those aspects.

“You don't see it, but it's happening simultaneously and ownership is supporting it in a tremendous way,” Marlins principal owner Bruce Sherman said. “And in terms of spending the money … you saw us spend money at the Trade Deadline in '23. That was good money spent. We will do it again in '25, in this season, if we have the opportunity to do that.

“All the fans focus on free agency. I understand it. Payrolls are a function of years of control, of players, the system, who's in your system. As you know, we signed Sandy [Alcantara] to an extension. I have never [told] Peter, ‘Oh, we're spending "X" dollars in the front office that comes out of player payroll.’ That's not how it works. We will spend money at the right time. I guarantee it. Nobody wants to win more than we do.”

Bendix reiterated what he said at the General Managers Meetings about the organization being open-minded in finding ways to improve. Though a tried and tested cliché, there’s always a need for more offense (Miami scored the NL’s fewest runs last season) and more pitching (17 arms spent time on the injured list).

The Marlins learned the hard way in 2024 by setting an MLB single-season record with 70 players appearing in a game.

“Exciting group of players,” McCullough said. “There's talent here. Certainly on the mound, there's always been some real arm strength here. Get some guys back healthy ... looking forward to hopefully continuing to have our players take a step forward.”

Miami took that first step by executing eight deals leading up to the Trade Deadline and adding 15 players to a farm system that went from 29th to 15th. Two of those acquisitions -- third baseman Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers -- saw substantial playing time as the season winded down.

“Our farm system improved tremendously over the course of the year,” Bendix said. “By the end of the year, we had a lot of interesting, talented players on the Major League team, in addition to the Minor Leagues. We've got a lot of talented players in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues, players that we expect to see this season. And I think that there's just a ton of talent that's coming to our team very, very soon.”

This offseason’s challenge is balancing the need to improve the MLB roster while also not blocking prospects -- like catcher Agustin Ramirez (MLB Pipeline’s No. 96 overall, Marlins' No. 3 prospect) and corner infielder Deyvison De Los Santos (Marlins' No. 4 prospect) -- from callups in 2025 when they’re ready.

Asked about potential additions at catcher, center field and shortstop -- positions where Miami didn’t see consistent production in 2024 -- Bendix offered a vote of confidence to those on the 40-man roster, without naming names. Those who have made their MLB debut include Nick Fortes and Jhonny Pereda at catcher, Dane Myers, Derek Hill and Stowers in center, Xavier Edwards at shortstop and No. 13 prospect Javier Sanoja in a utility role. Ramirez, De Los Santos, No. 10 prospect Jared Serna (middle infielder) and No. 16 prospect Victor Mesa Jr. (center) are waiting in the wings.

“I'm really excited about the players on our roster,” Bendix said. “We're always going to look externally to upgrade in any way that we can. But the players that we have on the roster, in those positions and a lot of others, they showed a lot of positive things over the course of the season. I'm excited to see what they can do next year.”