Give Fins a chance in 2019

MIAMI Marlins mess on >> Saturday, Park The outfield was with a those worn- grass who out at arrived for the team’s annual FanFest being greeted by signs reminding them that the turf will be replaced soon.

When it comes to the Marlins, many things are a work in prog-ress

the Wearing rebranded new team uniforms logo, with in a stadium that has gotten sprucedup since last season ended, some of the 2019 Miami Marlins gathered for the first time to greet fans and start hyping the new season. Pitchers and catchers report to the team’s spring training home in Jupiter on Wednesday.

“I would tell our fans to just give us a chance,” Marlins President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill said. “So many people have written off the Marlins and really haven’t taken an opportunity to take a deep look at what we’re building. When you have a lot to do, it’s going to take time and we understand where we’re at. But we’ve been able to add a tremendous the By last Hill’s 18 months.” amount count, of the talent Marlins over have added 38 prospects and upper-level players since this new regime led by Derek Jeter took over after the 2017 season. That has gone a long way toward restocking a farm system that by

Hill’s own description was “barren.”

“We know where we were,” he said. “We know where we’re going.”

TheMarlinswon63games last season, their ninth straight year under the .500 mark and the 15th consecutive time the team missed the postseason — the secondlongest drought in baseball, topped only by Seattle’s run of 17 straight seasons without a playoff game. Attendance plummeted to a club recordlow811,104, and the teamjust traded away its best player, sending catcher J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia.

“Only one team gets to win the championship every year,” said right-handed pitcher Dan Straily, who started 56 games for the Marlins over the last two seasons. “I think every year, with every team in baseball, there’s a little bit of excitement for everybody to get going. There’s always that hope that this could be the year.”

The Marlins aren’t saying if 2019 is their year. Or 2020. Or 2021, for that matter.

They just believe their year is coming.

For Realmuto, the Marlins got catcher Jorge Alfaro and pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and Will Stewart from the Phillies. Alfaro has aboveaverage power and, the Marlins believe, evena better arm

than Realmuto — who they considered elite in that capacity. Sanchez has the arm to consistently reach the upper 90s on his fastball, while Stewart doesn’t throw as hard but has off-speed offerings that get him out of trouble.

It’s deals like that why the Marlins truly believe this rebuild — one of many by the franchise in the last 15 years — is the right one.

“They’re doing what they said: building the organization from the bottom up,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You keep acquiring talent. You keep marching down that road that gets you to the point where you are competing for a chance to win a world championship every year.

That’s the plan. That’s the goal. I think anything less than that, you don’t accept it.”

There was a reason why the grass looked bad Saturday. Monster Jam — a show where five- or six-ton trucks with 66-inch tires will destroy anything in their path — is coming to Marlins Park next weekend. It’ll chew up the current turf quite nicely. From there, new sod goes down in time for opening day.

“It’ll look nothing like it does right now when we come back in six weeks,” Straily said.

The grass will be exactly what the team wants by then. The Marlins only hope the team is closer to their liking by then as well.