What if the Miami Marlins kept these two legends? Part II

You can read part 1 here. The rules are that I’m going to use WAR that the players actually accumulated on other teams. I then use it to calculate the difference from the replacement Miami Marlins players. This is meant to be approximate but gives a good general idea of what could’ve happened.

Part II is based on the idea that cheap or “financially very very careful” former owner Jeffrey Loria actually treated the Miami Marlins as a big market team and extended Miguel Cabrera (who would’ve switched to first base as he did in Detroit).

Imagine if Miguel Cabrera stayed with the Miami Marlins.

Let’s start with the 2009 season, as seen in part I, the Miami Marlins could’ve won the World Series in 2008. In 2009, The Fish had an 87-75 record and Jorge Cantú produced 0.8 WAR at first base. Miguel Cabrera produced 5.1 WAR for Detroit.

Let’s just say that’s 4 extra wins (5.1 is 5 and 0.8 is 1 and the difference is 4). That gives The Fish a 91-71 record. Colorado won the NL Wild Card with a 92-70 record, but some Miami wins could’ve been against them. This would’ve sent The Fish to the playoffs as a NL Wild Card team.

The Miami Marlins had an 80-82 record in 2010 and a 72-90 one in 2011 so neither makes sense to look at. The same applies for 2012 (69-93),2013 (62-100) 2014 (77-85), 2015 (71-91), 2016 (79-82), 2017 (77-85) or 2018 (63-98). By that point however Cabrera was no longer a factor really.

We can reasonably assume that had Loria cared, he could have improved the teams in all of those seasons. Miguel Cabrera was a perennial MVP for Detroit and with him the Miami Marlins could’ve made the playoffs in 2008 and 2009. The Fish would’ve even been good enough to win it all in 2008.

Jeffrey Loria’s management of the Miami Marlins was embarrassing and cost us multiple playoff appearances. Miguel Cabrera will eventually we’ll be elected into the Hall of Fame and he should’ve been doing so wearing a Miami Marlins hat.