As the Marlins go their separate ways this week, spread across the country and world for a few restful months, the club's braintrust will put its heads together to face a pair of realities that are difficult to reconcile.
On the field, the Marlins (79-82) made real gains in 2016, albeit while falling short of a postseason spot. Manager Don Mattingly framed the season as a "stepping stone" over the weekend in Washington. Several members of the team's young core _ Christian Yelich, J.T. Realmuto, Marcell Ozuna, to name three position players; plus Adam Conley and Kyle Barraclough to name two pitchers _ took noteworthy steps forward and offer legitimate reason to be optimistic about the future.
But the death of 24-year-old ace Jose Fernandez in a Sept. 25 boating accident changes everything.
The human tragedy of the entire situation _ the sudden loss of a teammate and father-to-be _ is obvious, and it eliminated what could have been a light, maybe even celebratory tone in the season's final days. Now, the Marlins' decision-makers have to deal with the baseball ramifications of losing one of the best pitchers in the world, which not only lessens the significance of Miami's positive 2016 takeaways, but also thrusts into question the club's readiness to genuinely push for a playoff bid in 2017.
"Jose leaves a pretty big hole not only in your gut, but in your club," Mattingly said. "How do you replace that?"
That's the question the front office will try to answer in its meetings this week and actions in the coming months. There are no easy solutions. Attainable pitchers will not be of Fernandez's caliber, and the Marlins have neither the farm system nor the checkbook to acquire a true ace. The starting-pitcher free-agent market is limited, too, with the likes of Rich Hill and Jeremy Hellickson _ good pitchers, but ones without proven track records _ among the headliners.
When the Marlins showed up to Jupiter, Fla., in February, Mattingly, the team's first-year manager, liked what he had. But he knew Miami would need some breaks, too, if it was going to make the playoffs.
"When I came into spring training, without saying it out loud, I knew there were certain things that had to happen," Mattingly said. "Part of that was we had to stay kind of injury-free. A lot of things had to fall our way. Guys were going to have to buy into the team concept. I knew we were going to have a young club coming down the stretch, and how we were going to react to that I wasn't quite sure.
"But realistically, we felt pretty good about our club having a shot to play in the postseason. Obviously that didn't happen, but I think this season has a chance to be a stepping stone for us moving forward to next year."
The Marlins did not get all the breaks they needed. After a strong first half, they started the second half hot, too, getting to nine games over .500 _ at 52-43 _ as late as July 21 and hanging onto an NL wild-card spot as late as Aug. 15.
Then injuries caught up with the Marlins, exposing their lack of internal depth. They lost first baseman Justin Bour in early July for two months. They lost left-hander Wei-Yin Chen for six weeks in mid-July. They lost right fielder Giancarlo Stanton for more than three weeks and left-hander Adam Conley for six weeks in mid-August.
When outfielder Marcell Ozuna missed several days to start September, the Marlins fielded a bare-bones lineup with backups and fill-ins.
The last few games of the season, effectively meaningless standings-wise, felt especially so after Fernandez's death.
