By Angel Rassi
11/3/21
The Atlanta Braves have won the World Series for the first time in 26 years by beating the Houston Astros in six games. This is a lesson to the Miami Marlins that you don’t need a team full of All-Stars to win the big one or even just to make it there. However, you do need a good all-around team and great team chemistry. The Braves took an unlikely path to the postseason and even the World Series but at the end it paid off.
Halfway through the season the Braves lost their young superstar outfielder, Ronald Acuña Jr., and they didn’t even have a winning record until Aug. 6. Most baseball fans thought the Braves were out of playoff contention by that point but with some trade acquisitions the Braves' bad luck turned around. The president of baseball operations and general manager of the Braves, Alex Anthopoulos, was able to acquire key outfield pieces Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Joc Pederson, and Jorge Soler before the trade deadline.
Anthopoulos key pick ups and the team chemistry helped the Braves go from a sub .500 team to a postseason team. Eddie Rosario, who wasn’t even on an MLB roster in the beginning of February, helped lead the Braves to beat the 106-win Dodgers in the NLCS, and won NLCS MVP. Jorge Soler, who was struggling with the Kansas City Royals in the first half of the season, heated up with the Braves and helped them to win the World Series, in which he also won World Series MVP. Jorge Soler is the second Cuban to win World Series MVP, the first was Livan Hernandez with the Marlins in 1997.
The Marlins are able to take the same route as the Braves and would have the potential to make the postseason and possibly the World Series if done correctly. The Marlins have shown that great team chemistry can help them make the postseason, as they did in 2020. If they are able to make undervalued pick ups in free agency or trade for underrated players then they could be set in stone for a postseason push. The Marlins have starting pitching covered, but if they can pick up at least one cheap reliable bullpen arm like Raisel Iglesias, and a few good outfield and utility bats like Nicholas Castellanos, Chris Taylor, Jorge Soler, and Eddie Rosario then the Marlins could be an overlooked team like the Braves were.
The most important part of the equation for a successful season and postseason run is great team chemistry. A team can have all the best players in the world but if they can’t coexist, or if one player brings the clubhouse morale down, then that team is destined to not succeed all the way. The Braves showed that the team morale was up in the second half of the season even with their young star out. They also showed it throughout their remarkable playoff run. The Marlins are a team that works well together and if they can set up a consistent core group of players with good veteran presence and leadership then they can become a postseason team like the Braves did.
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