Cal Quantrill on Why he Chose the Miami Marlins

Jason Burke | Feb 15, 2025

Feb 13, 2025; Jupiter, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Cal Quantrill (40) reacts during spring training at the Miami Marlins player development & scouting complex. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Marlins finished the 2024 regular season at 62-100, last in the tough NL East. Part of the reason for the down year was Miami's pitching, which finished ranked 29th in ERA with a 4.75 as a team, and finished with the same rank and a 5.24 ERA from the starters.

As pitchers and catchers reported to Jupiter, Florida earlier this week, it was also reported that the Marlins had brought aboard some pitching reinforcements in former Colorado Rockies starter Cal Quantrill.

Upon signing, Quantrill talked to the Miami Herald about his decision to sign with the Marlins. "I think this is an exciting young team. It’s an impressive group of guys. I think that the league’s getting younger, and I think that this team’s in a really good position to take a step forward, and I want to be a part of that."

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Given the season that he had with the Rockies in 2024, it's tough to see too many teams lining up to sign the 30-year-old righty to a big-league deal. He finished with a 4.98 ERA (5.32 FIP) while pitching in a hitter friendly environment. Miami won't provide much of a respite from the hitter-friendly environs, but it could end up helping Quantrill's stats look a little better over the course of the season.

As Stanford on SI wrote when he signed, "one factor that could play a role here is that loanDepot Park ranked No. 22 among MLB facilities in terms of giving up home runs, with just 92 allowed all year. Last season, Quantrill's 14.9% home run to fly ball ratio was the highest of his career, and the 23 dingers he allowed were also a career high."

If he gives up a few less home runs, then his ERA will drop, even without making any adjustments from year to year. Starters across MLB averaged a 4.15 ERA, and while allowing fewer dingers may not help him get all the way there, it would help him get a little closer to that mark. Heck, even the 4.98 ERA he put up last season would be an improvement over what Marlins starters produced as a unit.

Another big reason why Quantrill is a nice signing for Miami specifically is that he has shown that he can eat up innings year after year. He has finished with at least 148 innings in three of the past four years, with the 99.2 he put up in 2023 in 19 starts with Cleveland being the outlier. He also added another 22.2 innings in the minors that season, keeping him well above 100 innings pitched.

Coming into 2025 Miami has three starters slotted into their projected rotation that are 26 or younger in Max Meyer, Edward Cabrera, and Ryan Weathers, and none of those three have tallied 100 innings in the big leagues across one MLB season.

The Marlins are likely to begin the year with ace Sandy Alcantara at the top of the rotation, Quantrill at the bottom, and the other three young arms mixed in the middle.

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