As Peter Bendix and the Miami Marlins carefully navigated this year’s Major League Baseball trade deadline, they were walking a bit of a tightrope.
Still in the National League Wild Card hunt when the cutoff date rolled around, they had to balance between making moves for this year while still continuing their highly successful rebuild.
As they enter September, the Fish look like they were fortunate enough to have the best of both worlds. With their record currently at 69-69. With 24 games left in the ’26 tilt, they are hanging close in the pennant race. The Marlins are just four games behind the San Diego Padres, with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the way. The Snakes are a mere half-game out, as they and the Padres continue to trade the third spot.
That’s what’s happening right now. But the future belongs to many faces the Fish now feature, thanks to some shrewd deadline transactions by Bendix and the bunch. And one of the names that the club and its fans have to be excited about Brayden Taylor. The multi-talented infielder should figure in at the MLB level in 2027, and he brings a certain set of skills to South Florida.
Those skills happen to be a blend of power and speed. Taylor, currently stationed with the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, has shown his penchant as a playmaker this season, hitting .265 with 19 home runs, 63 RBI, and 26 stolen bases in 377 at-bats. He was acquired by Miami in the trade that sent pitcher Liam Hicks to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Taylor, shortstop Adrian Santana, and right-handed pitcher Jacob Kisting.
A former first-round pick by the Rays in the 2023 LB Draft out of Texas Christian University, Taylor was playing at Double-A Montgomery when the deal went down. However, he’s adjusted well to Triple-A pitching thus far, and he looks to be a part of Clayton McCullough‘s big-league roster in 2027. The 24-year-old dual threat’s skills are well-documented in his official MLB scouting report.
“In 2025, Taylor was guilty of putting too many balls high up in the air without the power to push them out of the ballpark… This season, his hands are relaxed in a lower position, and not only is he stinging the ball more as a result, [but] he has also cut down nicely on his swing-and-miss by being more on plane.”
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