Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an Amateur Free Agent in 2012, Venezuelan-born Pablo Lopez was traded as a minor league player to the Marlins in the summer of 2017.
Lopez made the Marlins during the 2018 Season, and as of this writing, he has been in South Beach since. Pitching in the starting rotation since his debut, Lopez has dealt with shoulder problems but proved that he had the goods to deliver when healthy. In 2021, Lopez set the record for the most strikeouts to begin a game (9), and in a healthy 2022, he went 10-10 with 174 Strikeouts.
Miami traded Lopez to the Twins before the 2023 Season, and he accumulated a record of 28-31 for the Marlins.
Winning the starting Shortstop job as a rookie in 1996, Edgar Renteria was second in Rookie of the Year voting, losing to Los Angeles’s Todd Hollandsworth.
Renteria, who batted .309 as a rookie, followed it with years of .277 and .282, and though he had no power, he was quick and stole a combined 73 Bases in 1997 1998. An All-Star in 1998, Renteria was part of the 1997 World Series Championship team, scoring eight runs in the playoffs.
Renteria was traded to St. Louis after his third season, where he made three more All-Star Teams. With Florida, Renteria batted .290 with 450 Hits.
Josh Willingham did what few 17th Round Selection did by making it to the Majors.
Playing a combined 28 Games in 2004 and 2005, Willingham entered 2006 as the Marlins starting Leftfielder, and offensively he proved to be decent, although he never developed his skills defensively. Willingham was ninth in Rookie of the Year voting, hitting 26 Home Runs with a .852 OPS, and had similar numbers the year after (21 HR, .827 OPS). Willingham missed 50 Games to injury in 2008, costing him a third 20-HR year, but he would obtain that in 2009, albeit in a Washington Nationals uniform, as Florida traded him in the 2008/09 offseason.
Willingham collected 378 Hits with a .266 Batting Average as a Marlin.
Oft-injured with the Toronto Blue Jays, Al Leiter bolted from the Jays as a Free Agent in 1996 for the sunnier skies of Florida. It was there where he was finally healthy and showed what he was capable of all along.
Leiter posted a 16-12 Record with an ERA of 2.93 in his first Marlins year, and he was an All-Star for the first time in his career. The year after, Leiter was not as good (11-9 4.324 ERA), but he was part of a rotation that took Florida all the way to the World Series, which they won by beating the Yankees.
Like so many 1997 Championship Marlins players, Leiter was part of the biggest baseball fire sale until the team did it again after their 2003 Title. He was traded to the Mets, though he returned as a Free Agent for an ineffective year in 2005. With the Marlins, Leiter won 30 Games against 28 Losses with a 4.07 ERA.
If Leiter's rank comes across as low, he was prone to walk too many batters and had a Marlins WHIP well over 1.4.