You could make a compelling case that Tanner Scott is the best relief pitcher in Miami Marlins history. Scott arrived in 2022 with the ideal pitch mix and temperament for high-leverage situations, and his control improved enough during his time in Miami to reach his full potential. The stoic lefty punched their ticket to the 2023 postseason, represented them at the 2024 MLB All-Star Game and brought back a prospect haul at the subsequent trade deadline.
Trading Scott in his walk year was an easy call because as much as the Marlins appreciated his contributions, they were never going to be the top bidder for him in free agency. That statement could apply to most players, but especially relievers—their workloads are so limited and their results so volatile that low-payroll teams must preserve resources to address other positions instead. The Los Angeles Dodgers secured Scott’s services on a four-year, $72 million deal.
Scott has flopped with the reigning World Series champions. On Tuesday, he fumbled away a 4-3 lead against the bottom of the Arizona Diamondbacks lineup for his MLB-leading 10th blown save of the season. He ultimately surrendered a walk-off RBI single to Geraldo Perdomo, giving the D-backs a huge jolt in the National League Wild Card race. Scott’s ERA has nearly tripled from last season and he ranks bottom 10 among all MLB pitchers in win probability added.
Contrast that with the current Marlins. Seven of their relievers whose combined salaries are a mere fraction of Scott’s allowed only one earned run over seven innings en route to victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. That’s just the way it’s gonna be—patching games together with a carousel of pre-arbitration arms who may lack marketability and All-Star upside, but still get the job done.
There is ample time for Scott to justify his contract. However, his turbulent year on the heels of two dominant ones is the latest example of how difficult it is to project what you’re getting out of the bullpen.
Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 5-4. Robby Snelling (5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 105 pitches/65 strikes) allowed a pair of two-out home runs in the fourth inning, spoiling what was an otherwise good performance. Forgettable night for Kemp Alderman, who struck out in each of his five plate appearances. Facing elimination tonight, the Jumbo Shrimp will turn to Marlins No. 1 prospect Thomas White as their Game 2 starter.
Snelling was selected by Baseball America as the Marlins’ Minor League Player of the Year for 2025, while Alderman was named a Southern League All-Star. During his 110 games with Double-A Pensacola, Alderman slashed .282/.337/.447 with 15 homers, 20 stolen bases and a 131 wRC+.
More Marlins news and content below:
🔷 For the first time in nearly a decade and only the third time ever, the Marlins have gone 11-1 over a 12-game span. The previous occurrences were very early in the 2009 and 2016 seasons.
🔷 Dane Myers suffered a “pretty nasty cut” on his right knee when attempting a leaping catch at the wall in Citizens Bank Park. All signs point to Joey Wiemer coming back up from Jacksonville to take his place on the active roster for the final five games of the season.
🔷 Kevin Barral looks ahead to the opening of the next international signing period in January. Shortstops Santiago Solarte and Ronny Muñoz are among the 19 players who already have agreements in place with the Marlins, sources tell Fish On First.
🔷 I observed that the Marlins have shown by far the most year-over-year improvement among National League teams, and that historically correlates well with winning the Manager of the Year award. McCullough’s club has accrued 15 more victories than it did in 2024.
🔷 Happy 25th birthday to Graham Pauley. The Marlins infielder couldn’t hit a lick early in the season, but he has turned things around since the All-Star break. In 58 total major league games in 2025, Pauley is slashing .235/.318/.386 with four home runs, two stolen bases, a 96 wRC+ and 1.1 fWAR on the strength of terrific defense.
🔷 Aram Leighton of Just Baseball did a breakdown of Jakob Marsee‘s swing adjustments. While his current superstar-caliber rate stats are due for some regression moving forward, Leighton still projects him to be “a building block for the future.”
🔷 Michael Rosen of FanGraphs looked at Janson Junk‘s arm angle variation. “Junk was one of the few pitchers with zero relationship at all between his arm angle and fastball vertical movement,” he discovered.
🔷 In the race for the third NL Wild Card spot, the Diamondbacks, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals won on Tuesday, while the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants lost. The Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by five runs entering the fifth inning, but rallied back. The Marlins have a “tragic number” of two—that is the combination of Marlins losses and Mets wins required to officially eliminate Miami.
🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Cleveland Guardians have pulled into a tie with the Detroit Tigers atop the AL Central standings. The Guardians trailed by as many as 15.5 games earlier this season and still faced a 10.5-game deficit entering September. For the eighth time in the last nine years, the New York Yankees have clinched a postseason berth. MLB’s Joint Competition Committee voted to approve the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system for use in regular season games beginning in 2026. Each team will get two challenges per game, which can only be initiated by a pitcher, catcher or batter.
🔷 Today’s MLB game: the Marlins continue their series against the Phillies (probable starters LHP Ryan Weathers and LHP Jesús Luzardo). Luzardo will almost certainly establish new career-highs in innings pitched and strikeouts during the course of the game (surpassing his 2023 totals in both categories). The Marlins have a 31.6% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 6:45 p.m. ET.