Send the Word to Friend and Foe Alike...The Marlins Really ARE Playoff Contenders
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Not one team in Major League Baseball could claim they are playing much better baseball than the Miami Marlins have been recently. In case you haven't noticed, the Fish have quietly built one of the best young teams in the game, while many of their baseball brethren have chosen bold trades and brash free agent signings.
Relatively speaking, Miami has been toiling away in relative obscurity, just waiting to be heard.
Well, no more. Based on their recent play, the South Florida squad is ready to stand up and be counted. Not in 2027 or 2028 as many experts predicted. Not at all. The Marlins (46-41) have made it known, clearly and forcefully, that they are ready to battle baseball's best when Fall comes around.
The best record in baseball in the month of June:
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) July 1, 2026
The Miami Marlins • 20-6
It’s the Marlins’ best month in franchise HISTORY by Winning% (.769) 🐠 pic.twitter.com/a5jb8wKMGa
Provided that they can get there, which is still no easy task. Despite a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, the Marlins have still won six of seven games entering Thursday afternoon's series finale against the Rox.
They are currently in third place in the NL East, trailing the first-place Atlanta Braves by 5.5 games; they are tied with another rebuilding club, the St. Louis Cardinals, for the final Wild Card spot.
Clayton McCullough says there's been no special mixture to cause this early explosion of success. The Marlins' manager said that his emerging young team is playing winning baseball by doing the simple things that matter.
"I think kind of just playing complementary baseball, playing good defense, pitching well, and then scoring throughout the game."
The League is Hearing Miami's Footsteps
While no one perceived that Miami's young roster was this big of a dragon ready to roar, everyone assumed they would improve this season. But it's clear now that the calm before the storm is over.
The influx and emergence of stars like Otto Lopez and Joe Mack, along with the rest of the youth movement, have the Marlins spearing the competition.
The sound reverberating from loanDepot Park is starting to shudder through the consciousness of anyone who pays attention to the sport. If anyone was sleeping on this team, the alarm clock went off in June. And no one could manage to hit the snooze button. Now, the national media is loudly singing the praises of the 2026 Marlins.
The best team in baseball in June, by a decent margin, is the Miami Marlins. They're about to go 20-6, have outscored opponents 129-78 this month and have the lowest CBT payroll in MLB. The Marlins' third-highest-paid player is Giancarlo Stanton, who last played for them in 2017.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 1, 2026
There's still a lot of season left, so all the screaming could still be about nothing, and the Fish end up going hoarse until the start of 2027. But if they manage to maintain this shockwave of success, they will be cued up and ready to make some noise in the postseason. [Mic drop]
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