The recent history of the Miami Marlins has revealed an organization willing to sacrifice young, cost-controlled major league players to acquire high-ceiling talent while maintaining future financial flexibility. In the past few years alone, they've parted ways with Edward Cabrera, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Luis Arraez, and Trevor Rogers, among others, with an eye toward the future.

Now, history could be repeating itself once more.

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Marlins are willing to listen to trade offers for breakout shortstop Otto Lopez and star second baseman Xavier Edwards, but only if interested teams offer "a lot" in return.

Lopez, Edwards Coming Off of Strong Seasons

Lopez enjoyed a career-best 2026 campaign, leading the majors in hits (191) while finishing third in batting average (.305) and recording 34 steals. He was also named an All-Star for the first time. Edwards, his double-play partner, finished second on the team in hits (145) while hitting .280 with a club-best .360 on-base percentage.

To be clear, Miami is under no pressure to trade either middle infielder. Lopez turned 28 at the start of October, while Edwards turned 27 in August. Both men are under team control through the 2029 season. Therefore, the Marlins would maintain plenty of leverage in any potential trade of either Lopez or Edwards.

While it's curious that Miami would be open to trading away two of their best offensive and defensive players from this past season, the club does have internal options if another team blows them away with an offer.

Gold Glove finalist Javier Sanoja is coming off a career-best offensive season of his own at third base (.295/.333/.458) and can also play second base if a positional shift is needed. It's also possible that 24-year-old rookie infielder Jared Serna is ready to assume a bigger role next season. Meanwhile, No. 3 prospect Aiva Arquette enjoyed a solid 2026 campaign split between Single-A Beloit and Double-A Pensacola and could be poised to make his big league debut in 2027.

While losing either one of Lopez or Edwards (let alone both) would sting, they would give the Marlins' front office two major trade chips to use to help address other areas of weakness, most notably in the pitching ranks (both starting and relief pitching) and in the slugging department (Miami finished 23rd league-wide in home runs this past season).

Such is the nature of trading that you need to give something to get something. Marlins president Peter Bendix and GM Gabe Kapler would surely be happy to hold onto Lopez and Edwards, but also recognize that they are near the peak of their trade value. If that presents a way to acquire young future stars in the same way they landed the likes of Kyle Stowers, Owen Caissie, and Jakob Marsee, then it could pay off in the long run.