The Miami Marlins are a Major League Baseball team that plays in the city of Miami as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Founded in as an expansion team - they were originally called the Florida Marlins. Their first game was in , in Sun Life Stadium. The team changed their name in , to the Miami Marlins, and moved, still playing their home games at LoanDepot Park. As of the end of the 2025 regular season, the Marlins have the second lowest winning percentage (.460) and the fewest post season appearances among active MLB franchises (four). In their first two playoff appearances, the Miami Marlins won the World Series, in and .
1990–1997: Early years and first World Series On March 7, , Wayne Huizenga, CEO of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, announced he had purchased 15% of the NFL's Miami Dolphins and 50% of the Dolphins' home, Joe Robbie Stadium, for an estimated $30 million. Huizenga stated his intention to aggressively pursue an expansion franchise. MLB had announced a few months earlier that it intended to add two new teams to the National League. It was a foregone conclusion that one of them would be placed in Florida; the only question was whether Huizenga would beat out competing groups from Orlando and Tampa Bay. Orlando fielded a very spirited campaign bolstered by its family-oriented tourism industry. Tampa Bay already had a baseball park — the Florida Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg, completed in 1990. However, on June 10, , the National League awarded a Miami-based franchise to Huizenga for a $95 million expansion fee (Tampa Bay, however, would get an MLB team of its own in 1998 when the Devil Rays started play). One name considered early on was the Florida Flamingos. The franchise adopted the nickname "Marlins" from previous minor league teams, the Miami Marlins of the International League from 1956 to 1960, and the Miami Marlins (1962–1970) and Miami Marlins (1982–1988) teams that played in the Florida State League; the new major league Marlins replaced the erstwhile FSL Marlins (which changed its nickname to the Miracle in 1989) as the city's main baseball team, and would move westward to Fort Myers in 1992.
In November 1991, the Marlins hired Fredi González as the Marlins first Minor League manager.
On December 16, 1991, they made their first signing, inking 16-year-old Dominican pitcher Clemente Núñez to a contract. In June 1992, they selected catcher Charles Johnson of the University of Miami with their first first-round draft pick. Later that year, Marlins President Carl Barger collapsed and died at the baseball winter meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. The Marlins later retired the number 5 in honor of Barger's favorite player, Joe DiMaggio, but the team would issue the number into circulation for the first time when they moved to the city of Miami in 2012 and instead honored Barger with a plaque at the new Marlins Park.
The Marlins' first manager was Rene Lachemann, a former catcher who had previously managed the Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers, and who at the time of his hiring was a third base coach for the Oakland Athletics. The team drafted its initial lineup of players in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft. The Marlins defeated the Houston Astros 12–8 in their inaugural spring training game. Jeff Conine hit Florida's first homer before a crowd of 6,696 at the Cocoa Expo Sports Complex. The Marlins won their first game on April 5, , against the Dodgers. Charlie Hough was the starting pitcher for that game. Jeff Conine went 4-for-4 as well, making him an immediate crowd favorite. By the end of his tenure with Florida, he had earned the nickname "Mr. Marlin." Gary Sheffield and Bryan Harvey represented the Marlins as the club's first All-Star Game selections, and Sheffield homered in the Marlins' first All-Star Game at-bat. The team finished the year five games ahead of the last-place New York Mets and with an attendance of 3,064,847. In that season, the Marlins traded young set-up reliever Trevor Hoffman and two minor-league prospects to the San Diego Padres for third baseman Gary Sheffield. While Sheffield helped Florida immediately and became an all-star, Hoffman eventually emerged as the best closer in the National League. After the 1993 season, Donald A. Smiley was named the second president in club history. The Marlins finished last (51–64) in their division in the strike-shortened season of and fourth (67–76) in . Lachemann was replaced as manager midway through the by director of player development John Boles.
The Marlins had some bright spots on the mound and behind the plate in 1996. The team's 3.95 ERA ranked third in the NL, thanks in large part to newcomer Kevin Brown, who finished the season with a 17–11 win–loss record and an impressive 1.89 ERA. On May 11, Al Leiter pitched the first no-hitter in Marlins history.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Catcher Charles Johnson led the league with a .995 fielding percentage, threw out a league-high 48 percent of baserunners and collected his second straight Gold Glove Award for fielding excellence. After a slow start, the Marlins finished 80–82 to place third in their division. Boles returned to his previous position as director of player development, and former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland was hired to lead the club in .
1997: First World Series title
In addition to hiring Leyland as manager, the Marlins signed third baseman Bobby Bonilla, outfielder Moisés Alou, and pitcher Alex Fernandez to lucrative free-agent contracts, raising expectations to levels far beyond anything in franchise history.
The Marlins franchise got its second no-hitter from ace Kevin Brown on June 10, 1997. Brown nearly had the perfect game, but he hit the Giants' Marvin Benard with a pitch in the 8th inning when Benard attempted to bunt. With Brown, Leiter, and Fernandez heading the rotation, and Robb Nen closing out games, the Marlins' staff was almost systematic during their regular season run. In 1997, the Marlins finished nine games back of the Division Champion Atlanta Braves, but earned the wild card berth. Veteran additions such as left fielder Moisés Alou, third baseman Bobby Bonilla, and trade-deadline additions Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich added experience and clutch hits. Talented young stars Luis Castillo (2B) and Édgar Rentería (SS) comprised one of the best double play combos in the League. Castillo did not perform to expectations offensively, and was replaced by Craig Counsell before the playoffs began. The Marlins swept the San Francisco Giants 3–0 in the National League Division Series, and then went on to beat the Atlanta Braves 4–2 in the National League Championship Series, overcoming the loss of Alex Fernandez to a torn rotator cuff, and Kevin Brown to a virus. Brown's place was taken in Game 5 by rookie pitcher Liván Hernández, who had earned a spot in the rotation in the second half of the season, but was not in the rotation during the postseason. Hernandez struck out 15 Braves and outdueled multiple Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux to a 2–1 victory and a 3–2 series lead. Brown returned to the mound for Game 6, pitching a complete game victory to secure the Marlins their first-ever National League pennant. The underdog Marlins went on to face the Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, and won in seven games. In Game 7, Craig Counsell's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 2, then, with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 11th, Édgar Rentería's soft liner glanced off the glove of Cleveland pitcher Charles Nagy and into center field to score Counsell and give the Marlins the win.
The "Fire Sale" offseason Following the World Series victory, Huizenga dismantled the team, claiming financial losses despite winning the World Series. He traded most of the club's best players in one of the biggest fire sales in sports history. The first deal came days after the World Series, when outfielder Moisés Alou was traded to the Houston Astros for pitchers Oscar Hernandez and Manuel Barrios. The Marlins then traded Kevin Brown to the San Diego Padres for Derrek Lee and 2 minor leaguers. Finally, in May 1998, they dealt Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich, and Manuel Barrios to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile, both of whom would be gone via trades by midseason. On the flip side, these trades brought promising youngsters Derrek Lee and A. J. Burnett.
The Marlins did manage to win a second World Series just six years later in 2003. One player played on both championship teams despite being included in the "fire sale": Jeff Conine. Conine was traded after the 1997 season to the Kansas City Royals who in turn traded him to the Baltimore Orioles. The Marlins picked up Conine in a late season trade during the 2003 pennant race.
1998–2002: Last place finishes, new ownership and front office The Marlins slumped to 54–108 in , the worst record in the major leagues that year, and the most losses in franchise history. They are the only team to lose 100 games a year after winning the World Series. Leyland resigned as manager in October 1998, and was replaced by John Boles. Huizenga soon sold the club to John Henry, a commodities trader from Boca Raton, during the off-season. The Marlins had the second overall pick in the 1999 draft and drafted Josh Beckett, a high school pitcher from the Houston area.
In 1999, the Marlins were the first MLB team to host a game in which instant replay was used. While playing the Cardinals, Cliff Floyd hit a ball to the top of the left field scoreboard. Originally ruled a home run, NL umpire Frank Pulli reversed the call to a double, after consulting a dugout television monitor. The Cardinals won the game, 5–2. After the game, the NL League Office declared the umpires erred in using instant replay. MLB would not use instant replay again for almost a decade. The Marlins finished the 1999 season with the worst record in baseball at 64–98, and traded World Series MVP Liván Hernández to the San Francisco Giants. The Marlins also drafted pitcher Johan Santana from Houston in the Rule 5 draft but traded him to Minnesota in a prearranged deal for pitcher Jared Camp.
A month prior to the regular season, the Marlins hired David Dombrowski as the third President in club history, making him both President and General Manager. After posting the worst record in baseball for the 1999 season, the Marlins had the first overall pick in the 2000 first-year player draft and selected first baseman Adrián González, an 18-year-old native of Bonita, California. The Eastlake High School product agreed to terms with the Marlins that same day. The Marlins went on that season to finish 79–82 and third in the NL East. This was thanks to the emergence of OF Preston Wilson who had 31 home runs and 121 RBIs. Derrek Lee and Luis Castillo broke out this year as well, as Castillo posted a .334 batting average and Lee had 28 homers in his first full season. Antonio Alfonseca posted a then-club record 45 saves.
The club slowly worked its way back to respectability with a third-place finish in 2000, driven by young stars such as A. J. Burnett, Brad Penny, Preston Wilson, Luis Castillo, and Mike Lowell. Burnett pitched the Marlins' third no-hitter on May 12, , against the Padres, despite walking nine batters and throwing only half of his pitches for strikes. Three weeks after the no-no, Manager John Boles was fired and Hall of Famer Tony Pérez was named interim manager for the rest of the season. The club finished 76–86 and in fourth place, thanks to Brad Penny's and A. J. Burnett's emergence.