It’s time to talk about the Miami Marlins for the right reasons

The Miami Marlins won their first game back after their coronavirus-induced hiatus.

The Miami Marlins are normally as far from a well-respected club as there is in the MLB. They are the poorest team in the league, have some of the worst attendance in baseball, and are routinely at the bottom of the NL East. Nearly getting the season shut down after a handful of positive tests likely didn’t do much to help their reputation.

Over the last week, however, Miami has become one of the league’s most interesting watches, as they pooled together a team of replacement players and took down the Baltimore Orioles 4-0 in their first game back, pushing their record to 3-1 on the season.

The Miami Marlins will be a team worth watching this season.

While several key contributors, including 2019 All-Star Sandy Alcantara, will be unavailable until they return from the IL, the Marlins will likely need to lean on the contributions of young prospects like outfielder Monte Harrison as well as veterans like pitcher Pablo Lopez, who hurled five shutout innings in his last starts, and first baseman Jesus Aguilar, who hit his third home run of the season yesterday.

Even in a packed NL East, no one is out of it now that the season is just 60 games. If the Marlins are able to scratch and claw out enough wins to make the playoffs, it would be one of the top storylines in the 2020 season.

While the Marlins nearly got the entire season shut down due to their reckless disregard for the MLB’s safety protocols, this ragtag bunch of prospects, Triple-A players, and castoffs making a run and winning a few games might end up being one of the league’s better feel-good stories in 2020 if they are able to sustain this success against a rigorous schedule.