Power boost

With new additions, Marlins confident they can score more runs

The number that might best tell the tale of the 57-win 2019 Miami Marlins — 3.80.

For all the team’s legitimate excitement about young pitching depth and its expressed hopes to make a run in this shortened 60-game season, Miami knows it won’t do much of anything if it scores just 3.80 runs per game — a statistic that ranked the Marlins 29th out of 30 Major League Baseball teams.

The front office, of course, knew the team needed to boost its lineup. So it did.

In December, Miami traded for Jonathan Villar, a do-it-all, top-of-the-order type player. Villar smacked a career-high 24 home runs to go along with a .274 batting average and 40 stolen bases playing second base for the Baltimore Orioles a year ago. In the process, he made it onto some “most underrated player in baseball” lists.

“When we traded for Jonathan, that’s, like, one of those moves that as a manager you’re like ‘yes’ right away,” said Marlins

manager Don Mattingly on Wednesday. “He gives you a guy up top you needed — switch-hitter, power and average, steals bags. A guy that’s exciting up top.”

While Villar has played all over the infield throughout his career, Miami is trying him out at center field. He got some reps early in spring training before the league shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, managing to hold his own at

the new spot.

The introduction of the universal designated hitter might also offer Mattingly the versatility to keep Villar’s bat in the lineup on nights he wants to spell him in the field.

“I don’t care, whatever position they want me to play,” Villar said. “We play only for two months, and they put a DH. Last year, I played one time DH. That (was) fine — if you stay in the lineup every day, I don’t care whatever [position] they put me. So I’m going to be here for the team.”

Villar alone will not lift Miami from one of the worst offenses in the league. The Marlins also signed outfielder Corey Dickerson to a two-year, $17.5 million contract. Dickerson, a career .286 hitter, should be a stabilizing force in the middle of a volatile lineup, otherwise saturated with mostly younger players.

“Corey has always hit, no matter where he plays,”

Mattingly said. “He’s been around. He’s always hit.”

Villar and Dickerson are the two biggest additions, but Miami also added veterans Matt Joyce and Jesus Aguilar.

This group won’t be confused with a 2017 lineup that featured Giancarlo Stanton, J.T. Realmuto, Marcel Ozuno and Christian Yelich. But the team’s additions help make it a more formidable lineup than either of the previous two seasons.

The hope for the Marlins isn’t necessarily one seismic presence in the middle of the order that boosts the team’s run production, rather steady veterans helping lift the group while younger prospects continue their development.

“Our lineup is much improved with the additions of Corey Dickerson and Villar and Aguilar, and the development of our young players,” said president of baseball operations Michael Hill. “The growth that they’ve had — the Brian Andersons and (Jorge) Alfaros. We feel as confident as anyone when we start this thing, as I said, we’re trying to keep playing into October.”

JULIO CORTEZ/AP Acquired in the offseason from Baltimore, Jonathan Villar hit a career-high 24 home runs for the Orioles last season.

MARK BROWN/GETTY A free agent who played for the Phillies in 2019, Corey Dickerson was signed to a 2-year deal in the offseason by the Marlins.