How rare is Miami Marlins’ four-lefty rotation? A look at MLB history

The Miami Marlins’ starting rotation to begin the season will be a rarity.

Four of the Marlins’ five starting pitchers — Jesus Luzardo, A.J. Puk, Ryan Weathers and Trevor Rogers — will be left-handed pitchers. Righty Max Meyer will open the season as the Marlins’ No. 5 starter with three pitchers expected to factor heavily in the Marlins’ rotation — another lefty in Braxton Garrett along with righties Eury Perez and Edward Cabrera — set to begin the season on the injured list.

It’s not something that has been seen often.

Heading into the 2024 season, there have only been four teams in MLB history that have had four left-handed pitchers make at least 20 starts in a season. Those four teams:

▪ The 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers (Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw, Hyun Jin Ryu and Alex Wood)

▪ The 2015 Chicago White Sox (John Danks, Jose Quintana, Carlos Rodon and Chris Sale)

▪ The 2013 White Sox (Danks, Quintana, Sale and Hector Santiago)

▪ The 1954 Washington Senators (Mickey McDermott, Johnny Schmitz, Chuck Stobbs, Dean Stone)

The Marlins, for what it’s worth, have only had multiple left-handed pitchers make more than 20 starts in a season seven times, including last season with Luzardo and Garrett. The other six seasons: 2016 (Wei-Yin Chen and Adam Conley), 2008 (Andrew Miller and Scott Olsen), 2007 (Olsen and Dontrelle Willis), 2006 (Olsen and Willis), 2003 (Mark Redman and Willis) and 1997 (Al Leiter and Tony Saunders).

“I’ve never seen a rotation with four or five lefties I don’t think,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “but they’re good lefties. It’s not like people are jumping up and down when they see five pretty good lefties out throw mid 90s and have good secondary [pitches]. I do feel pretty confident that if it’s all righties or lefties, as long as they have stuff, I could care less if they’re righty or lefty. I haven’t seen it, though it’s. unique. Some of our best bullpen guys are left handed as well, so it’s a very unique construction so far. It is kind of a crazy thing to think about, but it’s not so crazy when you’ve got actual stuff that you can work with.”

Luzardo is the most proven of the bunch. He established himself as a front-line starter last season when he set career highs in starts (32), innings pitched (178 2/3) and strikeouts (208) while holding opponents to a .239 batting average against and 1.21 walks and hits per inning pitched. Luzardo is experimenting with adding a curveball to his arsenal that already includes a 97 mph four-seam fastball, a slider that had a 51.8-percent whiff rate and a changeup.

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Puk, who the Marlins acquired ahead of the 2023 season, is slated to be a starter for the first time in his MLB career after making 142 relief appearances over his first four big-league seasons. The 6-7 lefty has added three pitches to his arsenal — a splitter, cutter and two-seam fastball — to go along with his four-seam fastball and sweeper that he used out of the bullpen.

Weathers, acquired by Miami at the 2023 trade deadline, is a reclamation project of sorts. He has a career 5.88 ERA over 46 appearances (31 starts) but has the raw tools to be a successful MLB pitcher. He dove into analytics during the offseason to best figure out how to maximize his pitches and has impressed the Marlins so far this spring. Weathers’ fastball averages 95 mph and he has seen improvement with both his changeup and sweeper.

And Rogers, who was the runner-up for National League Rookie of the Year in 2021, is looking to re-establish himself after struggling in 2022 and being limited to just 18 innings pitched in 2023. Rogers uses both a four-seam and two-seam fastball in addition to a changeup and slider.

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“Really,” Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said, “it’s just about having really good arms. If they’re left-handed or right-handed, it doesn’t make as much of a difference. It’s kind of cool that we’re gonna have four lefties in the rotation and perhaps five at some point, but ultimately it’s about each guy and his own game plan. They’re all very different styles of pitchers, and if they do what they can do well, they can get through lineups.”