DSL Marlins Narrowly Avoid Unwanted Record

UPDATE: Story updated to reflect that rainouts have ensured the Marlins will not catch the Athletics.

The Marlins’ Dominican Summer League team is having a season for the record books, but they won’t mind if you don’t notice.

WORST MILB RECORDS, 2001-2016
2007	DSL Athletics2	9	54	.143
2016	DSL Marlins	10	56	.152
2006	DSL Orioles	13	52	.200
2013	DSL Yankees2	15	56	.211
2000	DSL D’backs/Red Sox	15	55	.214
2003	Cagua (Reds/Brewers)	13	47	.217
2004	AZL Angels	12	43	.218
2009	DSL Cubs2	13	52	.224
2014	DSL Padres	17	54	.239
2007	DSL White Sox1	17	53	.243

The Dominican Summer League is seven steps away from the big leagues. Because of that it is a very useful incubator that allows first and second-year Latin American signees to develop far away from the spotlight, a step below the Arizona and Gulf Coast complex leagues.

That lack of attention has allowed the DSL Marlins to suffer in obscurity. But as the DSL season wraps up, they narrowly avoided infamy. The DSL Marlins are currently 10-56 with two games left to play.

The worst record of the 21st century was compiled by the 2007 DSL Athletics2 which finished 9-54 (.143). 

This year’s DSL Marlins are hitting .202/.249/.290 as a team. They have scored a league-worst 201 runs. The pitching staff ranks 40th out of 42 teams with a 4.58 ERA. They are dead last in runs allowed, thanks in part to their league-worst 165 errors. They actually began the season with two wins, then proceeded to lose their next 13 games. They bounced back to win three of their next five games, including their only other back-to-back wins this season. But they went 2-23 in July and are 3-16 this month.

Switch-hitting outfielder Rosandel Reyna is easily the DSL Marlins’ best hitter. He’s hitting .323/.402/.448. No one else on the team has better than a .700 OPS.

It’s extremely rare to find a team struggle this much. The Marlins are guaranteed to finish with a worse record than the 2006 DSL Orioles, which had held the mark for the second-worst record this century. The Marlins don’t have to worry about topping the worst record in DSL history–the Tigers/Padres/Red Sox club—the three franchises all funneled players to one team—in 1990 went 8-62 (.114) in the sixth year of the then-fledgling league.