Atlanta Braves: Ranking the National League East's front offices by competence

The Braves' front office has gotten plenty of praise in recent years. How do they stack up against the rest of the division?

Nov 9, 2022; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos answers questions
Nov 9, 2022; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos answers questions | Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
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4.) Miami Marlins

It is easy to pick on the Marlins due to their ownership situation and that feels a bit unfair. Things seem to have improved since the days of the fire sales under Jeffrey Loria, but Miami's ownership still continues to refuses to invest significantly in the Marlins roster and that makes for some very difficult constraints to operate under.

However, Kim Ng and the rest of the Marlins' front office shouldn't get off that easy. Despite having a ton of young pitching depth from which to make trades, we have yet to see them make a deal for an impact player to at least give Miami a fighting chance. The Marlins' analytics department seems half-baked and definitely under invested in and, most importantly, they have not been able to develop any bats of note from the minor leagues. The drafting of Kahlil Watson in 2021 looks like a complete disaster and first round pick Joe Mack later in the same draft doesn't look much better.

There have been some positives under Ng, though. While they can't seem to develop or acquire much in the way of hitting, the Marlins have been very good at developing pitching with more on the way in Noble Meyer and Thomas White. What Miami ends up doing with all of these arms down the road will determine a lot here, but there is no denying that they know what they like in pitchers and the results have been good.

Miami also deserves some credit for being somewhat competitive this season. They aren't a particularly good team, but they are currently above .500 and on the fringes of competing for the last wild card spot in the National League despite having no offense to speak of outside of Luiz Arraez and Jorge Soler (both good moves by the front office) and being hamstrung when it comes to spending. It is hard to see Miami being much better than that going forward unless some things change, but at least that is something.

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