How Peter Bendix is trying to balance Miami Marlins’ immediate and long-term success

Peter Bendix understands the value of time and the relative nature that comes with it. He is a little more than two months into his job as the Miami Marlins’ president of baseball operations, a time frame that has seen him balancing dual goals of building on the Marlins’ momentum from last season’s playoff berth and putting the organization in a position to have sustainable success.

But as the clock keeps ticking toward the start of spring training — pitchers and catchers report to Jupiter in about three weeks — Bendix on paper has done more with the latter than the former.

He has beefed-up Miami’s baseball operations department with four new additions in assistant general manager Gabe Kapler (the Marlins’ fourth AGM), director of player development Rachel Balkovec (filling a spot that was vacant last year), director of amateur scouting Frankie Piliere (replacing DJ Svihlik, whose contract was not renewed) and director of baseball operations Vinesh Kanthan.

Meanwhile, the only additions to Miami’s projected MLB roster so far have been catcher Christian Bethancourt and utility player Vidal Brujan.

“We’ve made more [front office] hires than we have player transactions, but that isn’t necessarily because we’ve intended to do one instead of the other. You do both at the same time,” Bendix told the Miami Herald in an interview Tuesday. “We are trying to build a foundation for the future of infrastructure, of people, of technology, of a lot of things that are going to pay off five years down the road.”

Bendix, for his part, has described the offseason so far as “incomplete,” understanding there’s still a lot to be accomplished before the season begins on March 28 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“We’re trying,” Bendix said, “to build into this sustainable successful model where year in and year out, the expectation — rather than the hope — is we’re going to make the playoffs.”

Bendix’s message to fans

Marlins fans, however, have heard this talk before — and often. They have been told that the future will eventually come, only for that day to keep getting pushed back.

They have become reluctant, almost resigned, to the notion that long-term sustainability won’t become a reality because turnover generally comes after success. Both World Series teams were torn down, and the Marlins have now changed leadership after each of their past two playoff appearances — going from Michael Hill to Kim Ng after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and from Ng to Bendix after last season.

Now, it’s Bendix’s turn to sell his visions both with the present and the future.

His message to fans?

“I understand from the fan perspective what they want and why they want it. I want that,” said Bendix, who spent the past 15 years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization before being hired by Miami in November. “I want to build this team, this organization, to a point where if we make the playoffs and lose in the first round or we lose in the second round, it’s considered a failure instead of a success. Making the playoffs is a fantastic thing. It’s incredibly exciting. That is going to be a goal, to make the playoffs as many times as we can, but the ultimate goal is winning the World Series as many times as we can. ... That doesn’t happen quickly or overnight. That happens with a disciplined approach, and this is part of that long-term approach of trying to think of what’s going to pay off multiple years in the future. That doesn’t mean that we’re not thinking about this year’s team too, but you have to think about both at the same time.”

Where the roster stands

For his part, Bendix does have a solid core on the big-league roster as it stands. He returns the bulk of a team that went 84-78 in 2023 and clinched the National League’s second wild card spot only to be swept in the best-of-3 wild card round by the Philadelphia Phillies.

“There’s a lot of really good young talent on the team,” Bendix said. “There are a lot of players who either were pretty good last year or we have reason to believe will be pretty good next year.”

Two-time batting champion Luis Arraez anchors the offense, which will also have first baseman/designated hitter Josh Bell and third baseman Jake Burger in the lineup for a full season after being acquired at the trade deadline to hopefully offset some of the production missing from Jorge Soler going to free agency. Jazz Chisholm Jr. will play his second season in center field, and if he can stay healthy (a big if still considering his injury history) provides a dual threat of speed and power.

Upgrading at shortstop would be the focal point from the offensive perspective, but Bendix said he would feel “pretty comfortable” with the group he has in Jon Berti, Brujan, Xavier Edwards and prospect Jacob Amaya if they can’t add from outside the organization.

And while the rotation will be without ace Sandy Alcantara after he underwent Tommy John surgery, the group of Jesus Luzardo, Eury Perez, Braxton Garrett and Cabrera will form a strong albeit young quartet. The bullpen also returns high-leverage depth in Tanner Scott, Andrew Nardi, A.J. Puk and JT Chargois along with Anthony Bender coming back after missing 2023 following Tommy John surgery.

Bendix, however, understands the reality of how Miami got to the playoffs. They went 33-14 in one-run games and had 41 come-from-behind victories, which Bendix acknowledged “historically is something that’s very difficult to emulate year over year.”

Improvements need to be made.

When will they happen? Only time will tell.

“There’s still a lot of offseason remaining,” Bendix said. “There’s still a lot of meat on the bone. A lot of things can happen.”