The Best Miami Marlins Seasons and Every October Run
Two World Series titles as a wild card, no division crowns, and a postseason record of seven series won and two lost. Every Marlins October run, with the club's best and worst seasons in context.
The Marlins have one of the strangest résumés in baseball. In 33 seasons of play through 2025 they have won two World Series, in 1997 and 2003, and in neither year did they win their division. In fact, they have never won their division at all. They have also never lost a National League Championship Series or a World Series, and they have lost only two postseason series of any kind. Set against that is a regular-season record of 2,382 wins and 2,792 losses, a .460 winning percentage, and a run of last-place finishes that includes four seasons of 100 or more losses.
This article goes through the club's seasons in order of importance: the two title runs, the near-misses between them, the short modern postseason appearances in 2020 and 2023, and the lows that make the pattern so lopsided. Every record comes from the historical record through the 2025 season.
If you want the full narrative of ownership, ballparks and name changes, read the history of the Miami Marlins. If you want the players, the best players in Miami Marlins history goes position by position. This page is about the wins and the Octobers.
The ledger in one table
The club began play in 1993 as the Florida Marlins and became the Miami Marlins in 2012. Its postseason record is short enough to list in full.
| Year | Record | Route | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 92-70 | Wild card | NLDS beat San Francisco 3-0; NLCS beat Atlanta 4-2; World Series beat Cleveland 4-3 |
| 2003 | 91-71 | Wild card | NLDS beat San Francisco 3-1; NLCS beat Chicago 4-3; World Series beat the New York Yankees 4-2 |
| 2020 | 31-29 | Wild card | Wild-card series beat Chicago 2-0; NLDS lost to Atlanta 0-3 |
| 2023 | 84-78 | Wild card | Wild-card series lost to Philadelphia 0-2 |
That is four postseason trips, every one as a wild card, and a series record of 7-2. The two losses came in the two most recent trips, 2020 and 2023, and in each case the club was eliminated quickly. Only 8 of the club's 33 seasons ended with a winning record, and only two of them with more than 90 wins. The Marlins are the rare franchise whose October record is far better than its regular-season record.
1993 to 1996: the early years
The Marlins began in 1993 with a 64-98 record, a sixth-place finish in the NL East, and an attendance of 3,064,847 at Joe Robbie Stadium. That is the highest season total in franchise history and a figure the club has never approached since. The next season, shortened by the players' strike, ended at 51-64. The club was 67-76 in 1995 and 80-82 in 1996, a third-place finish and the closest the franchise had come to .500.
Those early teams had talent. Gary Sheffield, who played for the club from 1993 to 1998, ranks seventh in franchise history in home runs with 122, and Jeff Conine, whose years with the club run from 1993 to 2005, ranks third in hits with 1,005. Robb Nen's 108 saves from 1993 to 1997 are the club's career high. Rene Lachemann managed the first four seasons and went 221-285.
1997: five years old and champions
The 1997 Marlins went 92-70 and finished second behind Atlanta, which earned them the wild card. Jim Leyland managed the team in 1997 and 1998. The Marlins swept the San Francisco Giants in the division series, 3-0, then faced the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS. Atlanta's rotation included Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, two members of the 300-win club, and the Marlins won the series 4-2.
The World Series against Cleveland went to seven games. The Marlins won it 4-3, with the clinching game going extra innings. They did it in only their fifth season of play. Kevin Brown, who pitched for the club in 1996 and 1997, is third in franchise history with five shutouts. The offense is harder to summarize with the franchise lists, because most of the career leaders came later, but Sheffield and Conine were in the lineup.
1998: the morning after
The rest of the story is a famous cautionary tale. The Marlins followed the title with a 54-108 record in 1998, finishing fifth in the NL East, the worst record in the club's history. They went 64-98 in 1999 and 79-82 in 2000. The title roster did not stay together, and the regular-season record shows it. The 1998 winning percentage was .333, and no Marlins team has done worse.
The 1998 team is not the only 100-loss season. The club has lost 100 or more games three times since: 62-100 in 2013, 57-105 in 2019 and 62-100 in 2024. The worst Marlins seasons by winning percentage are 1998 (54-108), 2019 (57-105), 2024 (62-100), 2013 (62-100) and 2018 (63-98). Four of those five came in the years at Marlins Park or loanDepot park, which means the lean years have not been a feature of one ballpark or one decade.
2003: the second title
The second title came from a team that was not expected to win. The 2003 Marlins went 91-71, finished second again, and took the wild card. Jeff Torborg began the season as manager and Jack McKeon finished it; McKeon went on to manage the club through 2011, with 281 wins and 257 losses. The Marlins beat San Francisco 3-1 in the division series.
The NLCS against the Chicago Cubs went to seven games, and the Marlins won it 4-3. The series is remembered for Game 6, when the Cubs were close to clinching and a foul ball that went into the stands changed the inning. Whatever one makes of that play, the Marlins still had to win Game 7, and they did. The World Series was against the New York Yankees. The Marlins won it 4-2, and Josh Beckett pitched the clinching game, a complete-game shutout.
The 2003 roster had Dontrelle Willis, the Rookie of the Year that season, who won 68 games for the club from 2003 to 2007. Miguel Cabrera hit 138 home runs for the club between 2003 and 2007. Luis Castillo, the club's career leader in hits with 1,273 and in stolen bases with 281, was a table-setter, and Mike Lowell's 143 home runs and 578 runs batted in gave the lineup its power.
The years between: good teams that missed
After 2003 the Marlins were a solid club for a while. They won 83 games in 2004 and again in 2005 (both third-place finishes), 84 in 2008 (third) and 87 in 2009. The 2009 team finished second at 87-75, the club's third-best record by winning percentage, and Hanley Ramirez hit .342 that season. His .300 career average with the club is the franchise's highest among players with at least 3,000 at-bats.
Ramirez had won the Rookie of the Year award in 2006, and Chris Coghlan won it in 2009. The Marlins have produced four Rookie of the Year winners, Willis in 2003, Ramirez in 2006, Coghlan in 2009 and Jose Fernandez in 2013, but only the first played on a team that reached October. The division was crowded during these years, with Atlanta, Philadelphia and the New York Mets all strong at times, and a second-place finish in 2009 at 87-75 was not enough.
2012 to 2019: a new ballpark and a long slide
The club changed its name to the Miami Marlins in 2012 and moved into a new ballpark, Marlins Park, now loanDepot park. The 2012 team finished 69-93 and fifth. The 2013 team was 62-100, although Jose Fernandez, who went 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA and 187 strikeouts that year, won the Rookie of the Year award. His 2016 season, 16-8 with a 2.86 ERA and 253 strikeouts, was his last. He died in a boating accident in September 2016, at 24, and the loss was felt far beyond Miami.
Giancarlo Stanton was the face of the club for most of this period. His 267 home runs are the most in franchise history by a wide margin, and in 2017 he hit 59 and drove in 132 runs, winning the Most Valuable Player award. The club finished 77-85, second in the division, and still missed the postseason. Don Mattingly managed the club from 2016 to 2022 with 439 wins and 579 losses, the most games of any manager in club history. His clubs were 79-82 in 2016 and 77-85 in 2017, then 63-98 in 2018 and 57-105 in 2019.
2020 and 2023: the modern berths
The 2020 season was 60 games long. The Marlins went 31-29, finished second in the NL East, and made the expanded postseason. They swept the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in the wild-card round, the first postseason series win since 2003, and then lost the division series to Atlanta in three straight games. In 2023 the club won 84 games under Skip Schumaker, finished third and took a wild-card spot, then lost two straight to Philadelphia. For the opponents, see the history of the Atlanta Braves and the history of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sandy Alcantara's 2022 Cy Young Award is the club's other recent high point. He went 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA over 228 2/3 innings that year, and his career figures with the club (52 wins, 921 strikeouts, a 3.64 ERA) put him at or near the top of several franchise lists. The club finished 69-93 that season, which says something about how much one pitcher can carry.
What the club leaders say
The franchise leaderboards are as short as the postseason record, and they show how often the best players left or were traded away. Here is the table of club career leaders from the historical data.
| Category | Leader | Total | Years with club |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home runs | Giancarlo Stanton | 267 | 2010 to 2017 |
| Runs batted in | Giancarlo Stanton | 672 | 2010 to 2017 |
| Hits | Luis Castillo | 1,273 | 1996 to 2005 |
| Stolen bases | Luis Castillo | 281 | 1996 to 2005 |
| Wins | Ricky Nolasco | 81 | 2006 to 2013 |
| Strikeouts | Ricky Nolasco | 1,001 | 2006 to 2013 |
| Saves | Robb Nen | 108 | 1993 to 1997 |
| Earned run average (1,000 innings) | Sandy Alcantara | 3.64 | 2018 to 2025 |
No Hall of Fame player has four or more seasons with the franchise in the historical data, which is rare for a club in its fourth decade. The best-known careers with the team were short, and the club leader in wins has only 81.
Ranking the seasons
By winning percentage among seasons of 100 or more games, the club's best seasons are these.
| Rank | Year | Record | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 | 92-70 | Second, wild card, champions |
| 2 | 2003 | 91-71 | Second, wild card, champions |
| 3 | 2009 | 87-75 | Second |
| 4 | 2008 | 84-77 | Third |
| 5 | 2023 | 84-78 | Third, wild card |
| 6 | 2004 | 83-79 | Third |
The top two seasons are the two titles, and no other Marlins team has reached 90 wins. After them, the club's best years have been 83 to 87 wins. Five of the six best seasons came before 2012, and the one that came after, 2023, produced a wild-card exit.
The ballpark
The club has used six home parks by name in the historical data: Joe Robbie Stadium (1993 to 1998), Pro Player Stadium (1999 to 2004), Dolphin Stadium (2005 to 2010), Sun Life Stadium (2011), Marlins Park (2012 to 2020) and loanDepot park (2021 to 2025). The first four names belong to the same football stadium under different sponsors. The site's reference data lists loanDepot park at 37,442 seats, with a retractable roof and a turf surface, and dimensions of 344 feet to left, 386 to left-center, 400 to center, 387 to right-center and 335 to right. The best season attendance recorded under the Marlins Park name was 2,219,444; under the loanDepot name, 1,162,819. For how the park plays, see the loanDepot park guide.
Common questions
Have the Marlins ever won their division? No. Both titles came as a wild card, and no division title appears in the historical data for the franchise.
Have they ever lost a World Series? No. They have played two and won both.
What is their postseason record in series? Seven series won and two lost, counting the 2020 and 2023 wild-card rounds.
Who holds the club's main records? Stanton leads in home runs and runs batted in, Castillo in hits and stolen bases, Nolasco in wins and strikeouts, and Nen in saves. The Marlins also have one MVP (Stanton in 2017) and one Cy Young Award (Alcantara in 2022).
Which division rival is worth reading about next? The history of the New York Mets is another NL East story, and the history of the World Series explains how the formats of the championship changed over time.
Where to go next
For current standings and the next game, see the Miami Marlins team page and the standings. The loanDepot park page has the ballpark data, and the club topic page collects news and analysis. The numbers above end with the 2025 season; check the club's official site for anything later.