Most Marlins fans no longer confident in team’s direction

In year four under new Marlins ownership, they’re only on pace for 69 wins.

These are the dogs days of summer and Marlins fans are getting frustrated and increasingly disinterested, according to the latest SB Nation Reacts survey.

Hard to blame them! Despite having no future with the organization, Jorge Alfaro and Joe Panik continue occupying roster spots over Triple-A producers like Brian Miller and Bryson Brigman. Several Marlins veterans who actually contributed positively on the field were traded prior to last week’s deadline. Even ultra-talented rookies Trevor Rogers and Jazz Chisholm Jr. have gradually faded during the course of the 2021 campaign.

When one of the club’s “best” storylines at the moment is Lewis Brinson performing above replacement level, you know it’s slim pickings.

For the first time this season, the majority of our weekly email respondents said that they do not feel confident that the Marlins are headed in the right direction. The “approval rating” for Derek Jeter, Kim Ng and Co. has tumbled from 85% one month ago to just 47% in the aftermath of the trade deadline.

Here are the confidence percentages for the other NL East fanbases:

• Braves—58%
• Mets—78%
• Nationals—48%
• Phillies—25%

The best starting pitcher to change teams via deadline trade (Max Scherzer) and the best position player (Trea Turner) were bundled in a blockbuster deal to the Dodgers. Unsurprisingly, most of those surveyed anticipate that to have a greater impact than any other individual move. A meager 1% of votes went to Oakland’s acquisition of Starling Marte.

However, those votes were cast when all of us were in the dark about a looming 80-game PED suspension for incumbent Athletics center fielder Ramón Laureano.

Marte is now being relied upon to fill Laureano’s shoes. So far, so good: the pending free agent has been a top-three overall center fielder since coming aboard to keep the A’s firmly in the mix for a postseason berth.

The young left-hander who the Marlins received in exchange, Jesús Luzardo, is scheduled to make his second post-trade start against the Rockies on Saturday night.