Top Marlins Duo Is Scuffling at the Worst Time Possible
The Marlins' middle-infield duo needs to get back to their first-half form if Miami wants to get back into the playoff hunt.
The trade deadline has passed, and the Miami Marlins, who have continued to prove the preseason doubters wrong, did not do anything to bolster their big-league team. In fact, they did the opposite by trading one of their top-three hitters in their lineup and one of Clayton McCullough’s go-to bullpen arms. There is no doubt that the Marlins are missing both Liam Hicks and Lake Bachar.
Now, entering the end of August, sitting at .500 and four games back of the final National League Wild Card spot, the other two of the aforementioned top three are both struggling at the wrong time for a team holding on to any hope of making the postseason this year.
Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards are both enjoying career years for the Marlins. To this point in the season, they are a big reason why the Marlins had the best record in baseball in June and are still in contention for that final Wild Card spot.
Even before moving on from Liam Hicks at the deadline, this was not a lineup that provided much firepower. Their current +14 run differential this year is in large part due to patience at the plate, timely hitting throughout the lineup, and a lot of the heavy lifting from that stat comes from their team-record-breaking June run differential of 53.
They have also been battling through injuries and plenty of struggles everywhere else in the lineup.
Owen Caissie was the biggest offseason acquisition after coming back in the Edward Cabrera trade. He started well, but quickly started to fizzle out and eventually ended up on the injured list before recently returning.
Kyle Stowers was one of the bigger stories last year after being seen as the “throw-in” piece in the Trevor Rogers-for-Connor Norby deal. After missing a lot of spring due to a hamstring injury, he was slow getting out of the gate and never really regained that rhythm. He is currently back on the injured list with no true timetable.
The previously mentioned Norby is currently playing for the Colorado Rockies; their free-agent signing at first base, Christopher Morel, just had his contract selected by the Mets, and Agustin Ramirez has spent the majority of the season down in Triple-A since rookie catcher Joe Mack made his debut.
Though they aren’t big names, each was expected to be a positive contributor for this team.
After also missing time with an injury of his own, Griffin Conine came off the injured list, meaning business. Since being reinstated from the injured list on June 21, Conine is slashing .272/.364/.543 with 12 home runs and 27 RBIs, and has even finally started getting the reps at first base we had heard about dating back to before Spring Training even began.
His return has given the Marlins the jolt they’ve been looking for, but we’re not really here to talk about the good. Otto and X are going to need to step up if the Marlins are going to have a legitimate chance at making the Wild Card.
Where Did Otto Go?
After being named to his first All-Star Game, Otto Lopez came out of the second half battling a little bit of a lull.
In 128 plate appearances following the Midsummer Classic, Otto is hitting .222/.266/.265, still without a home run and struggling to find the holes in the field he was finding before. The weird part about it is that nothing has really changed much in his approach.
His walk rate is a slight bit higher, and his strikeout rate has dipped significantly. The big red flag would be the barrel rate and how significantly that has fallen. After finishing the first half with a 7% clip, he is currently hanging out with a 2.8% barrel rate, and his hard-hit rate has also suffered because of that.
The low walk rate of his career signifies that he is not going to work the count much to begin with, but the added aggression since the second half started hasn’t been helping him get out of this funk. A 54.3% ground-ball rate is not going to do him any favors either. Yes, he does have speed, but not enough to consistently be able to run out ground balls for base hits.
The Marlins are going to need their top-of-the-order bat to get back going. Should we expect him to get back to the same level he was at in the first half? Not at all, but something close is attainable.
The X-Man Is Stuck in the Multiverse
Xavier Edwards is another who was living on Cloud 9 when this season kicked off. He even enjoyed quite the power surge for some time, which, for him, was a plus given everything else the Marlins anticipated he would be able to contribute for them this year.
His .239/.310/.265 second-half slash line is just as sad as it sounds, especially when the expectation of any sort of power just isn’t feasible for someone of his profile. His 63 second-half wRC+ is just ugly. He has actually been a negative player for the lineup since July 17.
Per Statcast, his 88 events recorded in the second half have generated zero barrels to this point. The goose egg here is significant after he had generated 14 in the first half. Like Otto, he continues to hit far too many pitches into the dirt and, contrary to what he was doing in the first half, he isn’t walking either. That means two of your top four hitters in the lineup aren’t working counts to get on base.
So, What Happens Next?
Unfortunately for the Marlins, they do not currently possess enough firepower on offense to be able to make up for the slumps of their two first-half standouts.
What Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards gave this team in the first half was quite the story. In fact, they did so well that there were already Marlins fans clamoring for extensions to be handed out to both of them. Despite the current struggles, this front office likely still sees these two as key contributors to their team’s future success, but that doesn’t do the 2026 season any good.
I refuse to give up on this team’s chances, but the time is running out. Even then, just as people begin to try to count out this organization, they begin to go on runs to put themselves right back into the thick of things. For the sake of the fans in Miami and the growing angst building for them to build a consistent contender, let’s hope that these two can figure out what hasn’t been going right, get back to executing at a high level on the field, and see playoff baseball played back down in Miami again for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
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Cristian has been at Just Baseball since 2021, when he first started writing about prospects. He spent eight years working in Major League Baseball with the…