Much to play out
Extra innings and extra drama as the Marlins latest rebuild officially starts
MIAMI — On Opening Day, baseball officially happened to the Miami Marlins — and plenty of it.
Big hits. Timely pitches. Lost leads. Well-scripted hope giving way to the baseball nightmare of four Marlins relievers needed to get nine outs. Extra innings. Extra drama.
And, sitting in the middle of it all, even in a 6-5 loss in 12 innings, were some storylines the Marlins need to help carry the faith across 161 more games.
Jesus Luzardo, the kid from Parkland, threw five innings and struck out eight Pittsburgh batters before leaving a 5-2 lead to the bullpen after 80 pitches. That’s a beginning answer for an injured rotation.
The heart of the Marlins lineup, Josh Bell, Jazz Chisholm and Jake Burger, also got on base nine times in 12 trips to the plate with Burger having three RBI. Another good look for a desperate need. Can that nucleus remain a threat the next six months?
It was all enough to ignore the elephant in the room of the Marlins officially starting their latest makeover, complete with a symbolic trade-for-tomorrow on season’s eve. Five years after Derek Jeter mightily and miserably started down Rebuilding Road, Peter Bendix starts down his as the new chief of baseball operations.
Once, such rebuilds brought outrage, like when team owner H. Wayne Huizenga tore down a champion, or at least a loud snarl of public emotion like when Jeffrey Loria fielded one of his low-payroll teams after a publicly funded stadium was meant to end such problems.
By now, the not-near-sellout crowd of 32,564 represented the largest Opening Day attendance since 2016, suggesting there just aren’t enough interested baseball fans in South Florida anymore. Anger has been replaced by apathy now, fury by fatalism.
So, a new era began with the two, divergent stories everyone has seen play out with the Marlins, again and again, playing out right on top of each other on Opening Day.
First, there’s the big-picture makeover of this franchise. That takes precedence over all else. Tampa Bay, the previous employer of Bendix, is the small-market model here. The shame of baseball is 20 teams follow this model in becoming a feeder system for the other 10.
Bendix made no pretense what this year is about by trading veteran Jon Berti to the New York Yankees on Wednesday. So, the Marlins unloaded a valuable utility player, $3.2 million in salary and got a couple of prospects who are expected to play in the minors this year.
“This trade probably helps us a little bit more in the future,’’ Bendix said
All of which puts manager Skip Schumaker in an uncomfortable spot. He’s working to win, directing his players to win, when winning is secondary this year. One Schumaker thought about Berti’s trade stood out a few hours before Thursday’s first pitch.
“I’m really happy for him,’’ the manager said. “He gets to go to a place that’s got a chance to win it this year.”
He didn’t suggest the Marlins don’t have a chance to win this year.
Uh, did he? Schumaker was manager of the year in pushing the Marlins to 84 wins and the playoffs last year. Las Vegas has their over-under at 78 ½ wins this year. Give Schumaker the award again if the Marlins hit the over.
The Marlins begin with four regular starting pitchers hurt, one of whom, ace Sandy Alcantara, is out for the year. Pitching remains the considered strength of the team too. Some of that’s because, as Luzardo showed Thursday, there are still some good arms on this team.
The other part of that is the Marlins scored the fewest runs in the National League last year and then lost Jorge Soler’s team-high 36 home runs to free agency. So the question entering the year is if by signing the reclamation project of Tim Anderson, by getting a healthy year from Chisholm and by getting seasons from Berger and Bell …
Can they not score the fewest runs again?
Can they get their bullpen sorted out? Can the starting rotation return to health?
One down, 161 to go.