Giancarlo Stanton's huge season was a plus for the Marlins.
Giancarlo Stanton's huge season was a plus for the Marlins. (USATSI)

The Miami Marlins' 2014 season was mathematically concluded on Saturday. Let us eulogize the season that was, as we do with every team upon elimination.

What went right

After finishing 62-100, the Marlins hung around contention for a while in 2014 and enter Sunday with 74 wins, so a decent number of things went well for the club.

Atop the list is the monster season from 24-year-old slugger Giancarlo Stanton. He's put up an MVP-caliber season and appears ready to be the franchise cornerstone for at least the next few years. Along those lines, 21-year-old Jose Fernandez was one of the best pitchers in baseball before needing to undergo Tommy John surgery. Let's not forget about Henderson Alvarez, who was ace-quality during his age-24 season. He should be included, making it a trio of stars for Miami.

Beyond the starpower, there were more positives. Tom Koehler had spurts of effectiveness and Jarred Cosart was very good after being acquired in a trade. The bullpen was around league average in terms of ERA, but several pitchers -- A.J. Ramos, Mike Dunn, Dan Jennings, Bryan Morris, Carter Capps, etc. -- showed flashes of brilliance.

Christian Yelich (age 22) and Marcell Ozuna (23) showed great promise alongside Stanton in the outfield, too.

What went wrong

Fernandez's season-ending elbow injury and Stanton taking a pitch to the face top the list, easily.

The bad outweighed the good for Nate Eovaldi, prospect Andrew Heaney had a discouraging start to his MLB career and the veteran additions to the pitching staff -- Brad Penny, Randy Wolf, Carlos Marmol, etc. -- didn't work.

Offensively, they could've used a lot more from Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who lost 50 points off his batting average and over 100 of OPS despite moving from the AL to NL.  

Overall, despite having Stanton, the Marlins rank ninth in the NL in homers. So they could definitely use more power from other sources.

MVP: Stanton may win MVP of the National League, so he's the easy pick.

LVP: The injury to Fernandez. Had he stayed healthy all season, the Marlins may well still be fighting for a wild-card spot.

Free agents to be: IF Rafael Furcal, C Jeff Mathis ($1.5M club option), OF Reed Johnson,

Gameplan heading into the offseason

Not to sound like a broken record, but the most important thing is having Fernandez and Stanton healthy. They are young, legitimate superstars.

Past that, the Marlins could definitely use an upgrade at first base. At second base, they could stick with Donovan Solano or seek an upgrade. At third, Casey McGehee was a quality find this year, but it seems unlikely he'll hit so well again. In fact, he's hitting just .244/.319/.316 with 17 RBI in the second half.

The pitching staff should be pretty well set, so the focus will be on retooling the infield.

The Marlins this season have a payroll of around $45 million. Next season, with what they have in-house and factoring in arbitration raises and the like, baseball-reference.com estimates the club's payroll will sit around $39 million. Thus, they have some money to play with, even if owner Jeffrey Loria doesn't want to increase the payroll. Not much, though.

An interesting thought here is Pablo Sandoval, as Peter Gammons has reported the Marlins have interest. He'd be a huge piece to team with Stanton in the middle of the order and could play either third or first.

I wonder how cheap Billy Butler could come if the Royals don't pick up his option, because he'd be a nice buy-low guy for a team like Miami. Adding Sandoval and Butler would give the Marlins a pretty sneaky-great lineup heading into next season. They would have to increase the payroll, sure, but I don't think they'd have to break the bank.

Finally, they should continue to try and lock Stanton up with a long-term deal. Talks haven't gone very far to this point, but that doesn't mean they should give up. He's set to hit free agency after 2016. If they can't lock him up, they'll have to trade him at some point. Talk about (another) PR nightmare for Loria and company.

Ridiculously premature prediction for 2015

The Marlins will be a popular breakout pick next spring, but still won't make the postseason. They also will have talks stall with Stanton on a long-term deal and are faced with a very difficult decision heading into next offseason.