Miami Marlins are a professional baseball team that plays in the National League East division of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Marlins play in loanDepot park in Miami, Florida.
Originally called the Florida Marlins, the team played its first season in 1993. The first owner was the business executive H. Wayne Huizenga. In 1997, free agent players Bobby Bonilla, Moises Alou, and Alex Fernandez joined a talented young Marlins team that reached the National League playoffs as a wild card team. The Marlins defeated the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves in the playoffs and then the Cleveland Indians (now called the Cleveland Guardians) in the World Series. The Marlins were the first wild card team (a playoff system introduced in 1994) to win the World Series. By winning in only its fifth year of existence, the club became champions faster than any previous expansion team.
After trading away most of the team’s key players, Huizenga sold the club to Florida business executive John W. Henry. Henry and general manager Dave Dombrowski assembled a competitive team featuring pitcher Ryan Dempster, second baseman Luis Castillo, and outfielder Preston Wilson. Former Montreal Expos owner Jeffrey Loria bought the Marlins in 2002. In 2003, the team won its second World Series, again after qualifying as a wild card team. Stars of that team included first baseman Derrek Lee, pitchers Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis, catcher Ivan Rodriguez, and infielder-outfielder Miguel Cabrera. Following the 2011 season, the team changed its name to the Miami Marlins. In 2017, a group of investors led by the former MLB star Derek Jeter purchased the Marlins. In 2020, the Marlins named Kim Ng as their general manager. Ng became the first woman general manger of an MLB team.
