In Praise Of The Marlins Boxscore Guys
The Miami Marlins' top four offensive players are also featured daily in my favorite baseball newsletter.
A few weeks ago, I came across a very great creation that I now read through every morning as part of my daily routine. Indeed, Boxscore.email is one of the easiest choices a sports fan can make to subscribe. I open my email, find Boxscore, click to open it in a new tab, and voila, a delightful deep dive into the box scores from last night’s games in Major League Baseball. It’s both simple and perfect. This creation doesn’t just include the box scores, either, as it also keeps you up-to-date on the AL and NL leaders in batting average, home runs, wins, ERA, and whatnot. It’s a perfect nostalgic creation that I hope hangs around forever and ever.
Naturally, though, with this kind of email newsletter, you start to notice some familiar faces on the leaderboard categories. For the last couple of days, I’ve noticed I’ve jotted them down as the Marlins Boxscore Guys in my brain as I read through the NL individual leaders in those aforementioned statistics. There are four excellent players who I have come to expect to see every morning in three different categories: 1) Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards in batting average, 2) Liam Hicks in runs batted in, and 3) Jakob Marsee in stolen bases.
The Marlins are 27-34 with a -25 run differential as of this Tuesday morning. The NL Central features five teams, all of which currently have winning records. The NL West has three teams, the NL East has three teams, too, with winning records. The Fish are, really, on the outside looking on the outside looking in when it comes to their playoff chances in early June. The wins are not there for Miami, at least not yet, but they are improved, and if you are a subscriber to the Boxscore email newsletter, you get a glimpse of the interesting, productive players the team employs this season.
It’s a bit funny that both Florida teams have a player leading their respective League in batting average. In the AL, it’s Yandy Diaz of the Tampa Bay Rays. In the NL, it’s Lopez for the Marlins. The Rays are 15 games over .500 and only have nine more total hits than the Marlins this season. The Rays and Marlins are 27th and 28th in home runs, respectively. With a former longtime Tampa Bay Rays front office executive, Peter Bendix, leading the Miami front office, these similarities should probably not come as a surprise. The wins have just followed the Rays more than the Marlins to this point in the season. That’s baseball.
Lopez and Edwards are having fantastic seasons, though. The former leads the NL in average at .326. It’s also a huge bounce-back start for Lopez, as he hit .246 last year. He’s never had a WRC+ over 100, and that number sits at 132 in early June. With his .381 BABIP, perhaps Lopez doesn’t hold onto the NL lead in batting average, but he also might. And if he doesn’t, another Marlin, Edwards, might be the one to surpass him.
Edwards is having an even better year than Lopez. Both are in their mid-20s, and both are hitting consistently atop the Miami batting order. Edwards has a 147 WRC+ and came into the season with a Fangraphs ZIPS projection of 113. His K% is the lowest it’s been in his young MLB career. You know he’s hitting for average if you’re a Marlins fan or a subscriber to the Boxscore email newsletter, and he also kinda did all of this two years ago. If you’re a Lopez long-term skeptic, consider that Edwards had a BABIP of .398 in 2024, although that included 303 total at-bats. He did finish third in all of MLB in singles last season, though. Imagine the RBIs with a Matt Olson or Drake Baldwin hitting behind Edwards and Lopez every day in that Miami lineup?
Goodness.
Speaking of RBIs, Liam Hicks. Another Marlins Boxscore Guy mainstay. Hicks is third in the NL in RBIs, trailing only Washington’s CJ Abrams and Los Angeles’ Andy Pages. Hicks, like Edwards and Lopez, is also in his mid-20s and has a WRC+ above 125. He also leads the team in home runs with 12. In his second season in Miami, Hicks is one RBI short of matching his season total last season in 167 fewer plate appearances. He’s surpassed the vast majority of his preseason ZIPS projections and is the lone Marlin to have double-digit dingers this season. In fact, Edwards is behind with sixth, which should give non-Marlins fans an idea of the kind of power that’s typically included in a Marlin lineup card.
Finally, Marsee makes the cut. He, along with Lopez, Edwards, and Hicks, has been one of the four best Miami hitters to this point in the season. Why Marsee is a Marlins Boxscore Guy, though, is all of those stolen bases he’s successfully nabbed. On April 7th, he swiped four stolen bases in one game. He’s in the 89th percentile in baserunning, per Baseball Savant. He’s an odd player, though, as he’s hitting .190, but he is also in the 82nd percentile in BB%. He doesn’t hit for power, he doesn’t hit for average, but, man, when he gets on base, he makes the most of his opportunities. Ultimately, in combination with his great defense, he’s what baseball fans would love their nine-hole hitter to be – a Stolen Base Guy with an above-average glove.
So these are the Marlins Boxscore Guys. Every morning, they’re there. You probably won’t see them on TBS in October, but you’ll see them in my favorite baseball morning email newsletter. Lopez, Edwards, Hicks, and Marsee are different players who have provided different kinds of value to the Marlins this season. Even though the wins haven’t been there like they have for their fellow rebuilding NL East foe, the Washington Nationals, the Marlins Boxscore Guys have produced and should continue to produce. That’s something for Miami fans dreaming of postseason baseball in 2026, isn’t it?