Another star traded away?! Peter Bendix has a plan for the Marlins (no, really!)
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
First pitch of the Miami Marlins‘ opening game in Oakland last Friday arrived just as they were finalizing their trade of Luis Arráez, creating an awkward scene: Arráez, in full uniform, standing in the dugout among current teammates primed to become former ones, clearly unsure what to do with himself.
It was the third day of May. Major League Baseball’s season was barely five weeks old. A trade of any kind — let alone a deal involving the reigning National League batting champion — is exceedingly rare in those circumstances. And yet there was Arráez, on live television, suddenly the face of what looked like the start of another teardown.
During Peter Bendix’s first six months as the Marlins’ president of baseball operations, he mostly stood pat during the offseason, watched as Miami lost 24 of its first 33 games, then traded its most beloved player for a package of four San Diego Padres prospects, a series of events that has drawn the ire of a beleaguered market. All of it, Bendix stressed, aligns with his aspirations of building a consistent winner to break the rebuild cycle that has defined the Marlins’ three-decade existence. But it could take time. Lots of it.
He’s asking for patience from a thinning fan base that has seemingly run out of it.
“I understand what fans are hoping for,” Bendix said this week. “We’re hoping for the same things. And I understand that there is frustration and disappointment. We’re feeling those things, too. We all really want to win. We all really want to win as soon as we can. And we want to win in a sustainable way.”
When asked to illustrate his plan for doing so, he paused for nine seconds.
“The plan,” Bendix finally said, “is to be as disciplined as we can with our decision-making and to …”
He paused again.
“Yeah, it really comes down to being disciplined and having great people in all aspects of our organization so that we have the best information, the best coaches, the best development, the best scouts, all those different things.”
Bendix is careful with his words these days, not because he lacks clarity in his vision but because the tension between him and Marlins fans seems so high. Bendix’s hiring — in early November, after a 15-year run with a Tampa Bay Rays franchise that has become the model for winning on a tight budget — came three weeks after the trailblazing Kim Ng stepped down over what qualified as a demotion after she helped engineer a surprising wild-card berth in 2023.
Rather than capitalize on the momentum of that playoff team, Bendix settled on a conservative offseason in which he declined to bring back Jorge Soler, signed just one major league free agent — veteran shortstop Tim Anderson for $5 million — and dropped payroll even further.
Three weeks into the regular season, USA Today reported that Skip Schumaker, the reigning NL Manager of the Year, had asked the Marlins to decline their option in his contract for 2025, a clear sign he wants no part of a rebuild. Then came the Arráez trade. One of Bendix’s comments in the wake of that deal, in which he acknowledged the Marlins were “unlikely to make the playoffs this year,” only triggered more animus.
“I understand it,” Bendix said. “It’s because people really want a consistently contending team.”
There is a clear logic to what Bendix is attempting to do, even if the fan base might disagree with it. The 2023 Marlins made the playoffs despite being outscored by 57 runs, a potential sign of trouble. Rather than clog a tight payroll to prop up a team that seemed ripe for regression, Bendix kept the group together in hopes that full seasons of Jake Burger and Josh Bell — both acquired last August — would make up for any lost production and keep the Marlins on the fringes of contention.
Instead, Bell, Burger and Anderson got off to slow starts. Eury Perez tore his ulnar collateral ligament, joining Sandy Alcántara among those undergoing Tommy John surgery. And three of the Marlins’ other promising young starters — Jesús Luzardo, Trevor Rogers and Edward Cabrera — finished April with a combined 5.33 ERA. The Marlins nosedived within the NL East, their FanGraphs playoff odds dropping below 1% by the start of May.
Arráez, controllable through 2025, wanted to stay, according to people with knowledge of the situation. But the Marlins were clearly wary of paying a player with defensive limitations and average power, regardless of how elite a hitter and beloved a teammate. Instead, they dealt him sooner than anyone could have imagined
Alcantara, who signed a five-year, $56 million extension in 2021 and won a Cy Young Award the year after, is still trying to make sense of it all.
“Everything was good last year, we made it to the playoffs, we won a lot of games, but I don’t know what happened,” Alcantara said. “We started making changes, we started trading people. But I don’t want to say too much because they make the decisions and I’m just here to play baseball.”
Alcantara, the Marlins’ longest-tenured player, represents a noticeable trend throughout the roster: Even he wasn’t homegrown. Only about a quarter of the current Marlins were originally drafted or signed by the organization, and only one — Nick Fortes, a catcher taken in the fourth round six years ago — is an everyday player.
The Marlins began the year with the second-worst farm system in the industry, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, a precarious position for a team that consistently ranks near the bottom in payroll and attendance and thus operates with a very small margin for error. Their infrastructure demanded an overhaul.
Bendix was brought in primarily to address that — to implement the draft-and-develop system that has made the cash-strapped Rays successful in a division with the big-spending New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. It’s a model that requires heavy financial investments in analytics and other development tools but is founded on the type of synergy and culture that takes years to build. That pursuit, critics of Bendix’s approach believe, doesn’t have to come at the expense of competing at the major league level.
“I think it’s possible to do both,” Bendix said when presented with that scenario. “It’s very difficult, but we have a lot of talent still on our major league team.”
The industry perception is that the Marlins will continue to subtract before the July 30 trade deadline, with Luzardo and Jazz Chisholm Jr. popular picks to depart. But Bendix argued that the Arráez trade — for reliever Woo-Suk Go, minor league first baseman Nathan Martorella and outfield prospects Dillon Head and Jakob Marsee — doesn’t preclude the Marlins from trying to win as soon as 2025 when, ideally, Alcantara and Perez are healthy enough to join Luzardo, Cabrera, Braxton Garrett and Trevor Rogers in the rotation.
The likelihood, though, is that this will be another long process — that at least one of those aforementioned pitchers won’t be there next year. And though Bendix hails from the front office that set a blueprint for a team like the Marlins, their fans’ cynicism is understandable. In his own way, Bendix understands where they’re coming from.
Twenty-seven years ago, Bendix was a 12-year-old diehard fan of a Cleveland team that lost the 1997 World Series to the Marlins on an extra-inning walk-off single in Game 7. The Marlins sold off their best players immediately thereafter and lost 108 games the following year, a turn of events Bendix remembers vividly. More teardowns followed.
The Marlins once again faded after winning their second championship in 2003, missing the playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons at least in part because they didn’t retain the two breakout stars from that World Series — Miguel Cabrera and Josh Beckett. They added big names in Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes and Heath Bell to outfit a new, taxpayer-funded ballpark in 2012, then traded all three of them — plus Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson — by year’s end. A half-decade later, they gave up on an exciting young core headlined by J.T. Realmuto, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna, triggering the rebuild that sprouted the current crop — which might soon dissolve, too.
This could be rebuild No. 5 under owner No. 4 and GM No. 6, all in 31 years. Bendix is aspiring to build a sustained winner in a market that has seen promising clubs broken apart time and time again — something none of the others could do before him. He has refused, in prior interviews and in his recent conversation with ESPN, to put a timetable on when the Marlins might contend again.
His message to fans who have run out of patience?
“That we’re working extremely hard, every single day, to make that happen as quickly as possible.”
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr. crushed his first pitch 467 feet for a home run in his dramatic return to the Atlanta Braves on Friday night, almost one year after he tore his left ACL.
Acuña, in his customary leadoff position in the lineup, turned on a fastball from San Diego Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta and sent the ball into the seats in left-center. Acuña hesitated briefly on his jog around the bases for a shuffle step.
The homer by Acuña had an exit velocity of 115.5 mph. It was the hardest hit ball by a Braves player this season.
Acuña added a single in his next at-bat and also enjoyed a defensive highlight, throwing out Elias Díaz at second base in the eighth following Díaz’s single.
But San Diego’s Manny Machado hit a tiebreaking homer off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth inning to overcome Acuña’s homer and beat the Braves 2-1 to end a six-game losing streak.
Acuña said after the game “I had a feeling” about hitting a homer in his return.
When asked if he meant he had a feeling about a first-pitch homer, Acuña said: “Exactly how it happened. … To me that’s just the culmination of all the work I put in.”
Infielder Orlando Arcia, a 2023 All-Star, was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Acuña, who started in right field.
Acuña said through interpreter Franco Garcia that he was “super excited, super happy” to make his return and added “I couldn’t sleep that much” after receiving the news of his return Thursday.
Braves manager Brian Snitker announced after Thursday night’s 8-7 loss at Washington that Acuña would make his season debut Friday night.
Snitker said Friday it felt good to make out his first lineup of 2025 that included Acuña.
“He’s one of those players that you better not go get a beer or whatever because you might miss something really cool, you know?” Snitker said. “I mean, he’s that type of force, I think, in the game. I think he’s going to energize everybody. Going to energize the fans. Going to energize his teammates.”
Acuña, the 2023 NL MVP, hurt his left knee May 26, 2024, and had surgery on June 6. The 27-year-old played six games in the minors on a rehab assignment, going 6-for-15 with two home runs.
Acuña played in only 49 games last season, batting .250 with four homers, 15 RBIs, 16 stolen bases and a .716 OPS.
This is Acuña’s second comeback from a major knee injury. He tore his right ACL on July 10, 2021, and returned the following April. When asked Friday what is different about this rehabilitation process, he said, “Patience. The patience, for sure. … I just think I’m in a much better place.”
Atlanta is 24-26 after an 0-7 start.
“It’s huge,” third baseman Austin Riley said. “The talent is there. The energy he brings, having Ronald up there at the top of the lineup. … He can change a game at any point.”
Acuña was a unanimous NL MVP in 2023 when he hit .336 with 41 home runs, 106 RBIs and a league-leading 1.012 OPS. Acuña also stole 73 bases that year to become the only player with 40 homers and 70 steals in one season.
Arcia, 30, was a 2023 NL All-Star when he hit .264 with 17 homers and 65 RBIs. Arcia lost his starting job due to an inability to compensate at the plate while suffering a defensive decline. He hit only .194 in 31 at-bats this season.
Snitker said he hopes Arcia will accept a minor league assignment if he does not land another job in the majors.
“I think we all know that it’s a business,” Acuña said of Arcia getting cut. “I’m happy to be back but I’m sorry that’s the move.”
Nick Allen has taken over as the starting shortstop. Snitker said Luke Williams is the backup shortstop and Eli White, a part-time starter in the outfield, will see more time in the infield.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Edmonton Oilers atoned for letting Game 1 of the Western Conference finals slip away in a dominating 3-0 Game 2 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday to even the series.
Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner continued to be the most boom-or-bust player in the postseason. He gave up 20 goals and didn’t have a save percentage better than .833 in four losses. His three wins? All shutouts, becoming just the second Edmonton goalie in franchise history to record three in a playoff year. (The other was Curtis Joseph in 1998.)
Once again, the Oilers flexed their impressive depth. The stars combined on their power-play goal in the first period, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins getting the tally on assists from Evan Bouchard and Leon Draisaitl. The other two non-empty-netters: Brett Kulak‘s first of the playoffs, snapping his rebound past Jake Oettinger; and Connor Brown, continuing an incredible playoff run with his fifth goal in the second period.
(Of course, the highlight of Brown’s night was avoiding a calamitous injury when Mikael Granlund‘s skate nearly clipped his face.)
How did both teams perform? What are the big questions facing each team ahead of Game 3 on Sunday afternoon in Edmonton? Here’s our breakdown of the Oilers’ Game 2 win.
As I warned after Game 1: Not every game of the Western Conference finals would have a third-period implosion by the Oilers, nor the power-play success the Stars enjoyed to rally for that win.
Edmonton continued to roll at 5-on-5, winning the special teams battle. The Stars weren’t sharp on the details. There were too many shots that didn’t get through to Stuart Skinner, and there were not enough moments that truly tested the Edmonton goalie — outside of a third-period short-handed breakaway that Wyatt Johnston couldn’t convert, extending his drought to one point in eight games.
The Stars had more giveaways through two periods (21) than they had in any game of the 2025 postseason. That’s gift-wrapping the game to Edmonton. The Oilers were going to be desperate after losing Game 1, and Dallas didn’t come close to answering that effort or execution. — Greg Wyshynski
Edmonton Oilers
Grade: A
Edmonton got the start it wanted in Game 2 — Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallied an early power-play goal that felt like exacting revenge on that costly, penalty-filled third period the Oilers handed Dallas in Game 1. Then, Edmonton tempted fate, handing the Stars a power play — but neutralized it with an excellent kill. That was a confidence booster.
The Oilers followed that by holding Dallas at bay in the second frame, when Skinner was particularly strong as the Stars pushed for an equalizer. That success set up Edmonton to extend its lead with a pair of goals in just 1:13, off a powerful shot from Brett Kulak and a tip from Connor Brown. Edmonton exorcised a few more demons by killing the Stars’ power-play opportunities in the third period.
This was a low-shot game, with only three registered from both sides by midway through the frame, and it was clear how much effort Edmonton was exerting in trying to limit Dallas’ chances. It worked in the end. And a round of applause for Skinner, who rebounded from a brutal performance in the final 20 minutes of Game 1 to be a true difference-maker while recording his third shutout in four games. — Kristen Shilton
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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tips in opening goal for Oilers
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins buries the goal for Edmonton to give the Oilers an early 1-0 lead.
Three Stars of Game 2
Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist, and his power-play goal to open the scoring was the winner. He has multipoint outings in both games of this series, and both of the Oilers’ power-play goals through two games.
Skinner had 25 saves for his third shutout of the postseason, joining Curtis Joseph in 1998 as the only Oilers goalies with three clean sheets in a postseason.
3. Bouncing back
The Oilers flushed an abysmal third period in Game 1 to control Game 2 virtually for the entire 60 minutes, en route to a 3-0 victory to even the series heading to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4. — Arda Öcal
Players to watch in Game 3
The Stars winger shares the postseason scoring lead with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, at 20 points, thanks to a four-game stretch in which he has generated only one point — a power-play assist in Game 1 of this series. Rantanen earned all of his Conn Smythe hype by carrying the Stars through their first-round win over the Colorado Avalanche, and then posting two, three-point games in wins over the Winnipeg Jets.
But in Game 2, he had as many shot attempts as he did giveaways (three). Neither number is good for the Stars. With Roope Hintz leaving Game 2 because of an injury, there are even more questions about their top line, which hasn’t produced an even-strength goal since Game 4 against the Jets. — Wyshynski
Fans are always watching for McDavid. But for all McDavid’s marvellous moves and powerful playmaking, he hasn’t been a goal-scoring threat for Edmonton. McDavid has just three goals (with 20 points) in these playoffs, and 11 goals in his past 38 postseason contests.
There’s no discounting McDavid’s impact on the Oilers’ game, but there’s a need to see him light the lamp, too. Right now, McDavid is sitting on just one goal since Game 3 of Edmonton’s first-round series against Los Angeles. The Oilers are matching up well against the Stars at 5-on-5 in the series. And McDavid appeared to ring the iron at least once in Game 2.
If McDavid can put more doubt in Dallas by slipping one (or more) past Jake Oettinger, it could ignite Edmonton’s game further — and nothing would get the Oilers’ home crowd fired up quite like seeing the captain go off. — Shilton
Big questions for Game 3
What’s the status of Roope Hintz?
The Stars lost their top center in the third period after a nasty slash to the top of the skate by Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse. Hintz crumpled to the ice, clutching his left leg and needed help leaving the playing surface just 3:40 into the final period.
Nurse received only a minor penalty after the officials reviewed it — and the Department of Player Safety will review it further.
Losing Hintz, or having him diminished, would be a huge blow to Dallas, as the veteran Finn has five goals and six assists in 14 games, also playing on the Stars’ power play and penalty kill. — Wyshynski
The Oilers should be feeling good as the series shifts to their home ice. Getting one of the club’s top defensemen back would be an enormous boost for the Oilers, too.
Ekholm has been sidelined because of an undisclosed injury since mid-April, missing all of the Oilers’ postseason run to date. But he returned to practice Thursday, and though he remains day-to-day, even Ekholm admitted he didn’t expect to be back soon.
Edmonton has leaned on Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher in Ekholm’s absence, but there’s no question he would strengthen its back end when he’s ready. The Oilers must prepare for Dallas’ response in Game 3, and having Ekholm — who averaged 22 minutes in the regular season for Edmonton, while collecting nine goals and 33 points — makes that more manageable. — Shilton
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