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Making the playoffs a ‘pretty special moment’ for Marlins. The goal now: ‘Win ballgames.’

Michael Hill was his second year with the Miami Marlins’ front office the last time the franchise reached the postseason.

He still remembers the National League Championship Series and the eight-run inning in the pivotal Game 6 win that kept them alive (On the infamous Steve Bartman incident, Hill said, “Everybody will have their own opinion. I don’t think the ball was catchable myself.”). He remembers the celebration at Yankee Stadium 11 days later when the Marlins won their second World Series title in as many postseason attempts.

It has been 17 years since those moments. Hill is still here, now in his seventh year as president of baseball operations.

And, for the last 16, the Marlins have gone without those moments.

“Feels too long,” Hill said.

The drought ends Wednesday, when the Marlins make their postseason return at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a best-of-3 wild card series against the same Cubs team they beat in the NLCS way back when.

The Marlins secured the spot in the playoffs Friday at Yankee Stadium with an overtime win over the New York Yankees.

“It was a pretty special moment,” Hill said. “Personally, I just had to take a step back and take a deep breath because it’s been a long time coming and a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into this. It was quite a feeling to know that we had punched our ticket.”

The moment comes in the midst of the third year of the team’s rebuild under the Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter ownership group and during a 60-game, pandemic-shortened season. It provides validation internally that the team is heading in the right direction after going 120-203 over the previous two seasons as the organization prioritized depth and sustainability.

“When we report to spring training every year, out goal is to win championships,” Hill said, “and it is truly a tremendous accomplishment to get to the playoffs given what we had to endure this season. ... But we said it as soon as our ticket got punched that this is just the start. We’re not just happy to be here. We’re a playoff team. We know the talent that’s in that clubhouse, and we arrived in Chicago to win ballgames.

“It’s a race to 13 wins,” Hill added, “and to be the last team standing when it’s all said and done.”

Instructional league

While the Marlins’ big-league club begins a playoff race, many of their up-and-coming prospects will be in action at the team’s spring training facility in Jupiter over the course of the next month.

The Marlins began a month-long instructional league on Saturday that includes 45 prospects who are not on the team’s 40-man roster. For 40 of those players, this will be their first organization-instructed workouts since the coronavirus pandemic. There was no minor-league season this year, and only players who were part of a team’s 60-man roster pool were allowed to be with the big-league club or at the team’s alternate training site.

“We have a lot of players that we consider to be very top-of-the-line prospects,” Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said. “I think there’s been so much attention paid to what’s going on at the major-league level that I think sometimes people lose sight of the fact that you have a lot of minor-league layers who missed the entire year.”

Thirteen of the Marlins’ top-30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline will take part in the camp, including each of the team’s past three first round picks in right-handed pitcher Max Meyer and outfielders JJ Bleday and Connor Scott.

Newly acquired outfielder Griffin Conine, the son of Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine, is also part of the group.

This and that

Hill said the Marlins are still making final decisions regarding their 28-man roster for the three game series. The order of the rotation has not yet been finalized either. A positive: Outfielder Starling Marte should be good to go for Wednesday after suffering a left ear contusion in Sunday’s regular-season finale.

ESPN on Monday announced its TV and radio broadcast assignments for the seven wild card series its family of networks will cover. Jon Sciambi, Chipper Jones and Jesse Rogers will call the Marlins-Cubs series for TV. Kevin Brown and Jim Bowden have the radio call for Wednesday.

Marlins pitcher Sixto Sanchez, the club’s top prospect, was ranked as the No. 23 on MLB.com’s list of top rookie performers this season. Their write-up on Sanchez:

“His last two starts (7 IP, 9 ER) didn’t help him any, but Sanchez showed off as electric stuff as any rookie pitcher, one who will undoubtedly get a chance to shine on the playoff stage.”