Miami Marlins Make Curious Decision With Latest Coaching Moves
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Over the past few seasons, the Miami Marlins have found a way to produce a respectable offense with minimal financial investment.
Carrying the lowest payroll in baseball over the past two seasons, they still have remained competitive despite a payroll table that has paid no position player more than the roughly $820,000 that third baseman Deyvison De Los Santos earned last year (technically they have more in dead money tied to ex-players like Giancarlo Stanton, Avisail Garcia and Christopher Morel).
For Marlins team president Peter Bendix and the club's front office, apparently that meant that a "new voice in the hitting space" was needed, per Fish On First.
Miami opted to move on from hitting coach Pedro Guerrero at the start of the offseason, with Bendix announcing at his season-ending press conference that Guerrero would not be retained following two seasons in the role. Since then, the organization has promoted former New York Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson, who was brought in as a roving hitting instructor last July.
Marlins' Hitting Coach Decision is a Head-Scratcher
Clearly, Marlins executives saw something they liked in Lawson last season. Perhaps they appreciated a boost in the team's power numbers that saw them go from 154 home runs, 677 RBI and a .708 OPS in 2025 to 168 homers, 685 RBI and a .727 OPS. But that credit has to, at least in part, go to Guerrero as well.
Plus, any marked improvements to Miami's offense has to be viewed as a two-year trend. In 2024, the final season before Guerrero took the reins, the Marlins finished 27th in runs, home runs and RBI and finished T-29th in on-base percentage. Fast forward to this past season, and they finished 18th, 23rd and 18th in the same respective categories while finishing sixth in OBP.
During that time, Guerrero has overseen the development of young hitters like Kyle Stowers and Xavier Edwards, not to mention helping Otto Lopez to a breakthrough All-Star campaign in 2026 that saw him lead the majors in base hits (191).
In contrast, Lawson hasn't demonstrated a similar track record of success in recent years. He was the victim of a rare mid-season termination by the Yankees back in 2023 after leading the Bronx Bombers to a 28th-place standing in batting average and a 21st-place position in OPS. Even superstar slugger Aaron Judge suffered through one of his career-low bWAR seasons (4.6 bWAR) in 2023 partly under Lawson.
Following his stint in New York, Lawson moved on to the rival Red Sox, but he didn't last long. After being hired late in November of 2024, he made it through a little over one season before being cast off as part of a major coaching overhaul this past April for a team that had started 10-17. They would turn things around in his absence, going 77-58 the rest of the way to earn a playoff berth. As for Lawson, Boston fans didn't seem too sad to see the data-centric coach go.
Guerrero has since landed on his feet, moving on from baseball's lowest payroll to its highest as hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Perhaps Lawson will bring the new perspective that Bendix feels the Marlins need, but it's hard to argue at this moment that going from Guerrero to Lawson represents a clear upgrade.
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