Relievers Nardi, Scott will be ‘big part’ of Marlins in 2024
JUPITER
At this time last year, the Marlins weren’t entirely sure what they had in lefthanded pitchers Tanner Scott and Andrew Nardi. Scott always had the pure stuff to be a dominant reliever but never had the command to consistently execute. Nardi had just come off a rookie season in which he admitted was a failure as he adjusted to the learning curve that comes with a big-league debut.
This year, there’s no doubt about how much the Marlins value Scott and Nardi after they anchored Miami’s bullpen and became one of the more effective one-two relief pitcher combos in Major League Baseball over the course of the 2023 season.
Nardi emerged as one of the best relievers in baseball in terms of stranding runners as he built his way into being Miami’s primary set-up guy, while Scott finished the year as the closer and was tied for the highest wins above replacement of any reliever in MLB, according to FanGraphs.
“It shows you what happens when you’re motivated and guys believe in you,” Marlins manager
Skip Schumaker said. “Our coaching staff did a really good job of letting know how much we believe in them . ... Those two guys are going to be a big part of what we’re trying to do here.”
For Scott, who the Marlins acquired from the Orioles days before the 2022 season, his evolution last season came down to a simple message.
“Just go out there and attack,” he said.
That had been easier said than done for him to that point in his career, primarily because he couldn’t consistently find the strike zone.
In 2021, his final season in Baltimore, Scott had a 14.7-percent walk rate that was the fifth-worst in baseball among relievers who pitched at least 50 innings. In 2022, his first season with the Marlins, that number jumped even higher to an MLB-worst 15.9 percent.
In 2023, Scott cut that in half to a career-best 7.8 percent. He was throwing more strikes, keeping more pitches around the zone.
The result: Scott set career-best marks for appearances (74), innings (78) and strikeouts (104) while also posting a 2.31 ERA and .191 batting average against.
Over the final two months of the season, Scott gave up just three earned runs over 27 1⁄3 innings (a 0.99 ERA) while striking out 33 of 101 batters he faced and walking just three. He converted 10 of 12 save opportunities in that stretch after taking over the closer role in late August after A.J. Puk and
David Robertson primarily handled the role for most of the season.
“It was like a domino effect,” Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said. “It just started falling into place. It was an absolutely beautiful thing. If you asked me to draw that out for the next guy and think that he’s going to follow that path, I wish I had that magical formula in here. I’d hand it to everyone.”
For Nardi, his breakout came after reflecting on what went wrong during his first stint in the big leagues in 2022. Nardi pitched to a 9.82 ERA over 14 2⁄3 innings in 13 games that season.
In a glass-half-empty sense, Nardi said he “failed” in 2022.
In a glass-half-full perspective, Nardi took the experience as an opportunity to have a better understanding of what he needed to work on to contribute to the team.
Schumaker, entering his first year as the Marlins’ manager in 2023, said he needed to watch just one bullpen session to be intrigued by what Nardi could offer.
Nardi continued to impress during camp and broke spring training on the Opening Day roster.
He never gave up his spot.
Nardi pitched to a 2.67 ERA with 73 strikeouts against 21 walks over 57 innings.
Perhaps most impressive: Nardi only allowed five of 40 runners he inherited to score. Nardi was one of 16 pitchers in MLB last season to inherit at least 40 runners and had the best success rate out of all of them.
But Nardi knows he can’t get complacent after one successful season.
“I’ve still got a chip on my shoulder,” Nardi said. “Nothing’s permanent yet.” 1⁄3