MIAMI, FL—On Wednesday, Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix met with the local media to discuss the end of the 2025 season. After finishing with a 79-83 record—a 17-win improvement from the previous year—Bendix said that he expects to have a “really competitive team” in 2026.
“The goal remains to be as good as we possibly can be for as long as we possibly can, to build a team that’s competing for the National League East division and competing for the playoffs every single year,” he added.
Fans already buying into the vision
The Marlins opened the press conference by noting that they ranked among the top five MLB teams in percentage attendance growth from 2024 to 2025. There were five sellouts at loanDepot park—the highest single-season total in the stadium’s history. Fish On First has been told that any game with at least 34,500 paid tickets qualifies as a sellout.
Also, television viewership on FanDuel Sports Network Florida increased by 92% compared to the previous season.
Possible coaching staff changes
Clayton McCullough’s first season as Marlins manager was a mixed bag, with some instances where his in-game decisions led to tough losses. However, Bendix left no doubt that McCullough will continue in that role for a second season.
“Really happy with with our entire coaching staff, starting with Clayton,” Bendix said. “I think Clayton came in here, established a positive winning culture from day one. He is a phenomenal leader and support person to help players get better. He grew a lot throughout the season. Being a manager is an incredibly difficult job. Being a first-year manager is beyond difficult. I think he handled himself exceptionally well. Worked together with myself, with the front office, with players, with all different departments, really, really well. I think that the growth he showed was really impressive. I’m excited for year two with him.”
When asked about the status of the other coaches on McCullough’s staff, Bendix said “we’re still gonna have some conversations about that, and we’ll have more information.” In recent days, the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers have announced managerial changes, creating new opportunities around the majors for current Marlins coaches to potentially consider.
Agustín Ramírez catching experiment not over yet
As the primary catcher for the Marlins this season, Ramírez had a league-leading 19 passed balls, 10 errors and 83 stolen bases allowed (compared to only eight caught stealings). Despite that, Bendix said the 24-year-old still has “the ability to be a major league catcher and also needs to improve a lot to be able to consistently achieve that level.”
Through 136 games played, Ramírez slashed .231/.287/.413/.701 with 21 home runs, 67 RBI and a 91 wRC+. As a designated hitter, he posted a .780 OPS, and as a catcher, it was a .627 OPS. This wouldn’t be the first example of a player’s defensive position affecting their offensive performance—Xavier Edwards turned around his season after making the switch from shortstop to second base.
On the new Fish Unfiltered episode, FOF founder Ely Sussman speculated that Ramírez would continue to catch early in the 2026 season until the Marlins secure an additional year of club control over top catching prospect Joe Mack. Once Mack is called up, Ramírez may get moved off the position assuming that he’s still struggling at that point.
Another winter of Sandy Alcantara trade speculation
Although the Marlins starter finished with a career-worst 5.36 ERA through 174 ⅔ innings pitched, he trended in a positive direction after the All-Star break. Alcantara posted a 3.33 ERA over his last 13 starts, completing seven innings in seven of those outings. He reportedly drew interest from several teams leading up to the trade deadline, but none of them were willing to offer what the Marlins considered to be a fair deal. It’s fair to assume that the 30-year-old former Cy Young Award winner increased his market value during the second half of the season.
Bendix was non-committal about the future of the longest-tenured Marlin.
“I’m not going to speculate on any individual player or go player by player,” Bendix said. “It’s important to to always be looking for ways to improve our club, and that’s really what I’ve done since I’ve gotten here. I’m going to try to stay as disciplined as possible to doing that—making our 2026 really competitive and to building for a sustainably successful future.”
Alcantara is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract, but there is also a $21 million club option for 2027.
Alignment with ownership
Bendix explained that he and principal owner Bruce Sherman are “trying to build something that I don’t think the Marlins organization has ever had, which is being competitive every single year for a long period of time.” He declined to get into the specific kind of transactions that would allow the franchise to make the leap from a sub-.500 record to a postseason berth. “That’s what we’re going to talk about this offseason, but it’s still about improving this club for the short term and the long term.”
In FanDuel Sports Network’s Craig Mish final pregame segment of the season, he said that “it’s fair to say that the Marlins will be active in free agency—probably in a way that we haven’t seen over the last couple of years.” Mish highlighted relievers Ryan Helsley, Devin Williams, Kyle Finnegan and Raisel Iglesias as potential targets because of their ninth-inning experience. Bendix’s biggest free agent investment since being hired by Sherman two years ago was a $5 million deal to get shortstop Tim Anderson. The Marlins released Anderson midway through the 2024 season.
Regarding the possibility of contract extensions, Bendix reused one of his favorite lines: “we’re always going to have those conversations.” He acknowledged that the Marlins “have a bunch of really good young players” who could be extension candidates.
Bendix’s next media availability is expected to be during the annual Winter Meetings in December. For a third straight year, Fish On First will have boots on the ground for that.