Dave Hyde: Can we capitalize ‘loanDepot park’ if the Marlins grow up this year?
Finally, an Opening Day with optimism. I think. The Miami Marlins will build on last year’s playoff season. I hope. The fans are coming back back. Sort of.
It’s all a bit uncertain, just who and what the Marlins are entering Thursday’s opener against Tampa Bay. For instance, the players are the same, for once after a good year around this franchise, but now you can’t know the ballpark without a scorecard.
“Sorry I’m late,” shortstop Miguel Rojas said while taking a seat Wednesday morning. “I put ‘Marlins Park’ in my GPS and it couldn’t find it.”
It’s now called: loanDepot park.
Will the name grow up when the team does? Will we get to capitalize the “p” in “Park” then?
If it’s all shift-key crazy, lower case seems to be how the Marlins open a season after being the surprise team of baseball a season ago. Remember? They nobly fought COVID-19? They beat Chicago in the playoffs? Their kids showed they were growing up?
Now they’re back and again picked last in the National League East again. By everyone — “all the experts,” manager Don Mattingly said. Yeah, me, too.
“People think last year was a little bit of a fluke with 60 games,” Mattingly said of the pandemic-shorten 2020 season. “I think none of that matters, really. It’s more about us. We feel we have a good club.”
The problem is the National League East. It might be the toughest division in baseball. Philadelphia, Washington and the New York Mets loaded up over the offseason — and they’re all still behind Atlanta.
The Marlins? They hit a growth spurt at the end of last season and now possess what Mattingly called, “a humble confidence.” That’s a healthy attitude in sports. It’s one of growth for this team, too.
“Those who keep doubting us — keep doubting us,” pitcher Sandy Alcantara said.
Alcantara is the short version of the Marlins’ growth. He 25 now, a risen talent, starting his second Opening Day on Thursday against the Rays after spending the spring working a new and improved change-up.
“I think I’ve got to use it in games,” he said.
He’s like all Mattingly’s players — you come to see what kinds are all grown up now. Are they bigger? Stronger? Does that face under the cap look more like a veteran and less like a kid delighted to be here?
The pitching staff seems a given. “Every time we start a game, we’re sending out a pitcher who can keep us in it,” Mattingly said.
The questions are with the everyday lineup. Can Brian Anderson grow into a third baseman worth investing? Will catcher Jorge Alfaro be a consistent player? And then there’s Jazz Chisholm, the future shortstop and current second baseman.
“If he puts the whole package together, he’s a superstar,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly is in his sixth season as Marlins manager. Has he ever referred to a player like that on the edge of a season?
Here’s the other reason for optimism: The Marlins finally have some financial help. They signed a new television deal that will earn them just south of $50 million, a source said — up from the major-league-low $19 million last year. The ballpark deal should get them almost $10 million a year.
That doesn’t put them in the luxurious neighborhood of the top half-dozen teams staring with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baseball is screwed up in that fashion. The playing field isn’t level like in other pro sports. It’s a prime reason why the Marlins are such a historical mess.
The ballpark and TV deals at least provide some money in the kitty. Financially, they are, “two pillars of the foundation,” as Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said Wednesday.
Add it all up and the Marlins aren’t the sad-sack team that lost 105 games in 2019. The question is how much they can look like the playoff team of the last, pandemic-abbreviated season. The only certainty is the Marlins have expectations if no one else does.
“Expectations are a good thing,” Mattingly said. “We want to be a team and organization that expects to be competing for the playoffs every year.”
Play ball.
