Marlins part ways with hitting coach Pedro Guerrero

The Miami Marlins will not retain hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, MLB.com's Christina De Nicola reported, closing out his tenure with the club as the organization turns toward the offseason.

What happened

Per De Nicola's report, Guerrero will not return to the Marlins' coaching staff. The parting was framed as the club moving on rather than a resignation, though the precise circumstances were not detailed. What is established is that Miami enters the offseason with a vacancy at one of the most scrutinized positions on any major-league bench — the person who stands in the cage every afternoon and tries to make a lineup better at the thing baseball asks of it most often.

Why it matters

Hitting coaches occupy a peculiar place in baseball's accountability structure. They are close enough to the daily work — swing decisions, approach adjustments, film sessions — that a front office looking to signal change without dismantling a roster will often start there. Whether that is the precise logic at work in Miami is not stated in De Nicola's report. What the report establishes is the outcome: Guerrero is out, and the club now has a winter to decide what it wants the next voice in that room to sound like.

The timing matters, too. The Marlins finished the 2026 regular season at 80-82, sitting third in the NL East and eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race. That is not the profile of a club that can afford to leave offensive questions unanswered heading into an offseason, and the departure of a hitting coach signals that the front office is at minimum willing to examine whether a different approach in the batting cage produces different results. Whether the offensive numbers drove the decision is not stated in the report, and the desk is not in the business of filling that blank with inference.

Where the club stands

Miami closed the season at 80-82 (.494), third in the NL East and 14 games behind the division leader. The Marlins ranked sixth in the Wild Card standings, 8.0 games relative to the cut line, and were eliminated from postseason contention. They did finish on a one-game winning streak, which is the kind of detail that reads differently depending on your disposition toward small mercies.

The offseason picture has a few known anchors. Two days before the Guerrero news, MLB.com reported that the Marlins have no plans to trade Sandy Alcantara and that the club option for 2027 at $21MM is expected to be exercised — a meaningful commitment to the rotation's centerpiece. That same week, Alcantara skipped his final scheduled start of the season as the club managed his workload, a routine precaution at the end of a long year that does not appear to signal any deeper concern.

On the position-player side, outfielder Jakob Marsee has been visiting a specialist for left elbow discomfort, a development that has raised IL concern per recent Posterior reporting. That situation remains unresolved as the club heads into the offseason, and it adds a layer of uncertainty to the outfield picture that whoever fills the hitting coach vacancy will eventually inherit.

The Alcantara commitment provides a stable foundation on the pitching side. The offensive infrastructure — coaching staff, lineup construction, the development of younger players — is now visibly in flux. Those two realities will define much of what Miami's offseason looks like from the outside.

What we don't know yet

### Is there a replacement in mind?

De Nicola's report does not name a candidate, a timeline for the search, or any criteria the club has publicly stated it is looking for in a replacement. It is also not stated whether other members of the offensive coaching staff will be evaluated alongside the hitting coach vacancy, or whether this is a standalone change. The circumstances of the parting — club decision, mutual agreement, or something else — are not detailed in the report.

Guerrero's tenure length and the specific factors that informed the decision are likewise not addressed. The desk is not in the business of filling those blanks with inference, and the report does not invite it.

What is worth noting is that the broader staff picture, beyond the hitting coach role, has not been addressed in reporting. Whether Miami makes additional changes to the bench or coaching staff this offseason is an open question, and one that will likely come into focus over the next several weeks as the club conducts its standard end-of-season review.

What to watch

The Marlins' hitting coach search will be worth tracking for what it signals about the organization's offensive philosophy heading into 2027. A club sitting 14 games out of the division lead and eliminated from Wild Card contention has real decisions to make about identity, and the person they hire to stand in the batting cage every afternoon is one expression of those decisions — perhaps a quiet one, but a real one.

The Alcantara situation provides a stable foundation on the pitching side, with that club option expected to be exercised per MLB.com's reporting. But the offensive infrastructure is now openly in transition. Marsee's elbow situation is a separate thread to monitor; how that resolves will shape the outfield depth the new hitting coach works with, and the timeline on that remains unclear.

The broader staff picture, beyond the hitting coach role, has not been addressed in reporting. Whether Miami makes additional changes to the bench or coaching staff this offseason is an open question that will likely come into focus over the coming weeks.

For now, the Marlins have a vacancy at hitting coach and a winter's worth of decisions ahead of them. Pedro Guerrero will not be part of what comes next.