Sunday, September 07

In a recent sit-down with MLB.com at Citi Field, Clayton McCullough discussed a wide range of topics, from his first season as Marlins manager to the good example right-hander Sandy Alcantara has set for the young players on and off the field. MLB.com's Bill Ladson filled in for Christina De Nicola for this newsletter.

MLB.com: How would you describe your first year as a manager? 

Clayton McCullough: Eventful, an incredible learning experience both personally and professionally. I love our coaching staff, the players that we’ve had here and the direction the organization is going. You have an idea what you think it might be like in that [managerial] chair. Now going through it for three quarters of the season, I have a better idea. There are a lot of areas where I know I need to do a better job in 2026: Have better communication and be more out front in certain things. More than anything, it has taught me the importance of communication and transparency in baseball.

MLB.com: Before the season started, the prognosticators predicted the Marlins would lose 100 games. That’s not going to happen. Why has this team surprised the baseball world?   

McCullough: We felt we had a lot of talent in this clubhouse in Spring Training. Much of it was inexperienced at the Major League level. We were not sure which players would ultimately take hold of an opportunity and go do it. 

We really felt we had some pretty good arm talent, and we had a group that would be very adept at improving pitch arsenals and their stuff. We thought we had the talent to be much better than people thought we were going to be. 

… We didn’t worry about the noise. It was one of the things I told them during Spring Training. Don’t care what anybody predicts us to do. We are going to be a better team and organization on the last day of the season than we were the first day of Spring Training. That would be our goal all the time. Just look to get better and the wins will take care of themselves. We believed we had talented athletes in which to work with.

MLB.com: When did you realize this team would be competitive?

McCullough: The first series of the year [against the Pirates]. We had some comeback wins, thrilling wins. Right then, you saw they had a real belief in one another. The way they competed and played those games out during the early part of the season has been very much something we have hung our hats on. We are going to be a group that is going to play every game out to the end. That means if we go to the ninth inning down five or six runs, we’ll force them to bring their closer in, that’s a win for us today. That helps us for tomorrow. That has been our tenacity and competitiveness. It has been there from day one and it has been a big part of our ability to handle some of the ups and downs of the season. 

MLB.com: What has been the most pleasant surprise this year? 

McCullough: On an individual level, I would say the season Kyle Stowers is having has been remarkable. We feel Kyle is a very talented player, but I don’t think any of us saw the .900 OPS and being among the league leaders in a lot of offensive categories like he has. 

The emergence of some other players like [reliever] Ronny Henriquez has been a great revelation. There’s more: [Shortstop] Otto Lopez and [second baseman] Xavier Edwards. I think the most gratifying part is that we set out this season – across the board – to organizationally get better and have individual players get better. We feel we are at a point where so many players are taking strides forward that will put us in a better spot in 2026.

MLB.com: What improvement would you like to see in '26?

McCullough: Some more consistency. We believe we are going into '26 with a lot of arm talent. We are going to have a rotation that can go up against anyone, that’s going to keep us in games.  We found some real bullpen arms that can really help us. We also have the ability – from a pitching development standpoint – to take some lesser-heralded guys and turn them into high-quality Major League contributors. 

From the offensive part of things, we are trying to create an identity, one where we are going to control the strike zone. We are going to try to stress pitchers offensively to get us out. We have to be aggressive and opportunistic on the bases. That’s a path for us. We have to put pressure on people. Our offensive consistency will continue to improve as we continue to value a plan and approach – that’s quality over results. Pitching and defense is going to be our ticket. It’s going to be our pathway to being consistently successful and vying for playoff opportunities.

MLB.com: I know Sandy Alcantara has been consistent after the All-Star break, but the first half was forgettable. You stuck with him no matter what he did on the mound. You have been patient. How has he been in the clubhouse? 

McCullough: I could talk about Sandy for a long time. What Sandy has shown this year from a character, professional, competitive standpoint has been amazing. The results early on were not what he was expecting, not what we were expecting. 

Certainly, there were moments of frustration. But you saw Sandy – no matter how it went – back in the weight room. He is in the training room. He is in the bullpen trying to figure out how he is going to get better. When he took the ball the next time, you knew he was going to go out there and compete and figure out this puzzle and get these pieces put back together. This is the version we are seeing now. It’s more of a testament to Sandy’s will, grit and toughness. 

Throughout all of this, he has kept his head up. We knew it was going to happen. He was coming off a missed year after having [Tommy John surgery]. The command execution was going to take a little while to come back. We are starting to see that come together. Throughout all of this, he has never made excuses. It’s great for our young group here to see someone who has been at the top of his game for a long time and have his struggles. How he handled that adversity is what a professional does. You put your head down, you go to work and look for solutions to how to rectify things.                            

MLB.com: What’s ahead for the Marlins for the rest of the year? 

McCullough: We are going to approach every game like we have had from Opening Day. That is, we are going to prepare in a manner that sets us up to win every day against that night’s opponents. Evaluate that game, learn things that went well and the things we didn’t do as well from an execution standpoint. We’ll try to [get better] the next day. Hopefully, we are going to try to win as many games down the stretch. Nothing is guaranteed for next year. But, right now, we have a chance to continue to win games late in the year. Continue to get better, more solidified as a team. That’s going to bode very well taking us into this winter and in ‘26.

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