Needless to say, there is a ton of Miami Marlins news and content on the heels of their 162nd and final game of the 2025 season:
🔷 My main focus entering Sunday was the health of Edward Cabrera, making his second start since being diagnosed with an elbow sprain. Though far from flawless, Cabrera threw up zeroes against a desperate New York Mets team (5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 7 K, 83 pitches/44 strikes). He used even fewer fastballs than usual, but his fastball velocity was actually higher than his season average. I was most encouraged by the consistency and shape of his breaking balls. I still vividly remember watching Sandy Alcantara attempt to pitch through an elbow sprain in 2023. During his lone minor league rehab start, his slider was breaking in an unfamiliar and ineffective way—that was a bright red flag. It was announced the following day that Alcantara was halting his rehab. He underwent Tommy John surgery two weeks later. In Cabrera’s case, it’s looking like he and the Marlins dodged a bullet.
🔷 The Marlins improved from a 62-100 record in 2024 to 79-83 in 2025, setting a franchise record for biggest year-to-year increase in wins (only accounting for full-length seasons). The final victory also clinched their first season series win over the Mets since 2017.
🔷 Total announced attendance for the Mets series was 104,465, exceeding the Aug. 1-3 New York Yankees series for largest single-series crowd in loanDepot park history. As usual, the Marlins still finished last in the National League with a full-season home attendance of 1,156,777 (average of 14,281 per game). That is down ever so slightly from 2023 (1,162,819 total/14,356 average).
🔷 The Mets and Marlins have the same number of postseason appearances (two) since the almighty Steve Cohen began his ownership tenure. That’s wild to me.
🔷 The Marlins relayed all pitch calls from their coaches in the dugout during the final nine games of the season. The early returns were encouraging on the surface, though we will have more analysis on that shortly.
🔷 Here is the final postgame press conference of Clayton McCullough’s rookie season.
🔷 Kevin Barral did quick hits on each of the Marlins minor league award winners, with insight from director of minor league operations Hector Crespo.
🔷 Alex Krutchik spoke with Liam Hicks and catching coach Joe Singley about the keys to Hicks’ productive rookie season relative to the typical Rule 5 draft pick.
🔷 Hicks is one of only five Marlins who spent all 162 games on the club’s active roster.
🔷 Happy 21st birthday to Thomas White. Fish on First’s No. 1 prospect, White posted a 2.31 ERA and 38.6% strikeout rate this season while ascending from High-A to Triple-A. With some subtle mechanical adjustments and further refinement of his cutter, the southpaw can be a future ace.
🔷 The Marlins will be making a change to their Arizona Fall League plans prior to next week’s AFL season opener. Fish On First has learned that right-hander Xavier Meachem underwent elbow surgery, so he’ll be replaced on the Mesa Solar Sox roster.
🔷 Old friend Garrett Cooper announced his retirement. Cooper spent the vast majority of his MLB career with the Marlins, slashing .269/.338/.436 slash line with 52 home runs and a 110 wRC+ over parts of six seasons (2018-2023). He was a key cog in the 2020 club that snapped a 17-year postseason drought and he earned an NL All-Star selection in 2022. Injuries unfortunately played a big role in shaping Coop’s career—he never received enough playing time during any individual season to qualify for the batting title.
🔷 The Prediction Time leaderboard has been finalized for the 2025 season. Congratulations to SuperSub Alec Chao on edging out FOF staffer Hector Rodriguez! Reigning Prediction Time champ Daniel Rodriguez finished in 10th place (and I finished in 11th).
🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Cincinnati Reds clinched Major League Baseball’s final postseason berth, joining the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers. The Colorado Rockies finished with a minus-424 run differential, setting a new MLB record in that department (though they had two fewer losses than last season’s Chicago White Sox). Outfielder Michael A. Taylor also announced his retirement, concluding a 12-year MLB career. Sunday’s start was the end of the road for 18-year veteran Charlie Morton, and it may have been the end of Clayton Kershaw‘s remarkable run as well—the Dodgers have decided to navigate this week’s best-of-three NL Wild Card Series without him on their roster.
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