The Miami Marlins are the unlikeliest postseason team

Marlins are headed to the playoffs for first time since 2003 after overcoming the most unique set of circumstances

The Miami Marlins are headed to the postseason, a stunning statement made even more improbable in a season full of game cancellations, a revolving-door of roster moves, and a packed schedule of never-ending doubleheaders.

It is safe to say that no playoff team in Major League history has had to deal with the same issues that confronted the Marlins in 2020. The season began inauspiciously with a three-game series in Philadelphia. But then things started to get strange.

Eighteen Marlins players tested positive for COVID-19, an outbreak stemming from exhibition games played in Atlanta the week before. They went nine days without playing a game. They were forced to make 40 roster moves in a single week, and 170 over the last two months. They didn’t play their first game at Marlins Park until more than three weeks into the season.

The Marlins have used 37 different pitchers this season. The all-time record is 42 by the Seattle Mariners last season, but that was in a 162-game schedule; the Marlins have done it in 58 games. Just one pitcher, Pablo Lopez, has started more than seven games.

They gave up an NL-record 29 runs against the Braves on Sept. 9; no team has made the playoffs after losing a game by at least 20 runs during the season since the 2004 Yankees. They lost two games by at least 15 runs, making them the first playoff team to do so since the 2013 Dodgers.

All of that was forgotten on Friday night when Brandon Kintzler got the Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu to ground into a game-ending double-play in a 4-3, 10-inning Marlins victory. The Marlins got to celebrate on the field at Yankee Stadium, posing for a team picture on the mound. With their 30th win of the season, the Marlins can finish no worse than second in the NL East and clinched their first playoff berth since 2003. Fangraphs gave the Marlins just a 2.5 percent chance of making the playoffs at the beginning of the season.

In a strange coincidence, the outbreak at the start of the season ended up benefitting the Marlins. Knowing that they would have to cram as many games as possible into a condensed period of time, MLB implemented seven-inning doubleheaders for this season. The Marlins ended up finishing 10-4 in those games and 20-24 in nine-inning games. They’ve played 55 games in the last 52 days.

The job of putting together some kind of lineup despite having 18 of their players test positive fell to Don Mattingly, an almost-certain choice for NL Manager of the Year. Mattingly got to celebrate the achievement with his team in the Bronx on Friday, the same place he spent his entire 14-year playing career. The clinching victory came on the anniversary of Derek Jeter’s final at-bat in Yankee Stadium; Jeter is now CEO of the Marlins.

It was a tremendous achievement just getting this far for a club that has had to deal with so much, but the Marlins aren’t through just yet. After all, they’re the only franchise in the league that has never lost a postseason series. A run to the World Series seems improbable, but so did everything else they did in 2020.