A golden opportunity

Off to a solid start, the Marlins will soon enter a stretch of schedule that could define their 2023 season

You often hear baseball people talk about taking things one game at a time, one series at a time. No one wants to look ahead. Things change. Teams endure injuries. Clubs with low expectations surprise. As I’ve said many times over the years, there’s a reason why they play the games.

But today, through the powers vested in me, I’m going to eschew all of the cliches and…look ahead.

10-9 with wins in 4 of their first 6 series, the Marlins tonight begin a week-long trip to Cleveland and Atlanta. They’ll play 7 games against a pair of 2022 playoff teams, 3 versus Terry Francona’s Guardians and 4 against a Braves team that has owned Miami over the last 5 years (59-27) and is currently tied with the Brewers for the best record in the National League.

Then its home for 3 against the on-the-rise Cubs to end April and 3 more against Atlanta to begin the month of May, closing out a stretch of 7 out of 10 games against the nemesis Braves.

At that point, the Marlins will have played 32 games and will be 1/5 of the way through the season.

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But then comes a stretch of games that has the potential to vault the Marlins into a position in which they haven’t been in a full season in well over a decade.

From May 5 through June 29, the Marlins are scheduled to play 50 games, with only 2 series—maybe you could argue 3—against teams most expect to reach the postseason in 2023.

In that 8-week span, the Marlins don’t play a single game against the Braves, Mets or Phillies, the Big 3 in the NL East. They play more than half of those 50 games—9 of 16 series—against the D-Backs, Reds, Nationals, Rockies, Athletics, Royals, Pirates and Red Sox, all clubs expected to finish at or near the bottom of their respective divisions.

In advance of a July stretch that straddles the All-Star break in which they’ll play 16 in a row against anticipated contenders Atlanta, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Baltimore, the Marlins have a golden opportunity to reach the mid-way point of the season flying high.

Here’s a complete look at Miami’s fortuitous May-June schedule:

With MLB’s new balanced schedule, the Marlins play 4 series instead of the previous 6, and 13 games instead of the previous 19, against division foes. That means a combined 6 fewer series and a combined 18 fewer games against the powerful Braves, Mets and Phillies, against whom Miami went a cumulative 19-38 last season.

This stretch from May 5 through June 29 is a massive window during which those 3 disappear entirely from the schedule.

A full third of the schedule with no Acuña. Riley and Fried; no Scherzer, Verlander and Lindor; no Wheeler, Realmuto and Turner.

There’s a legitimate chance this Marlins team could approach the All-Star break in the hunt, and that hasn’t happened since 2016.

Over the last 5 full seasons, the Marlins have been an average of 12 games under .500 and 13 1/2 games back in the NL East at the break, at least 12 under in 3 of those 5 seasons and at least 10 games back every year.

If you go back to 2010, a span during which the Marlins have finished with a losing record in 12 consecutive full seasons, the club has been an average of 9 games under .500 and 12 games out of the division lead heading into the break.

Could 2023 be different? The upcoming May-June schedule seems to have the potential to open that door.

If this team is as improved as they’d like to believe, the Marlins could have a lot to look forward to as they look forward.

RADIO DAZE: With the Marlins’ crack broadcasting director Jason Latimer unable to secure any of his countless radio analysts to work the next 3 games in Cleveland, then striking out when he tried to entice outsiders to work the series, the executive who claims to prefer conversational broadcasts will offer listeners a one-man radio broadcast for the Marlins-Guardians series.

Look for Craig Minervini to join the booth for the following series in Atlanta.

Latimer would have been wise to offer an opportunity to call the games to one of the Marlins’ talented minor league voices, Scott Kornberg in Jacksonville, Erik Bremer in Pensacola, Larry Larson in Beloit or Lisa Pride in Jupiter.

Latimer’s on-going neglect of Marlins Radio is a disservice to fans and should embarrass his bosses.

Don’t be surprised if, in another money-saving move, the Marlins eliminate their radio broadcast altogether in the not-too-distant future. Other potential scenarios include going online-only with the broadcast or potentially simulcasting their TV broadcast on the radio. The simulcast concept was tried, then wisely abandoned mid-season, by the Blue Jays in 2021.

But when you prioritize pinching pennies over the quality of your broadcast, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility for Latimer and the Marlins.