Automatically expanded, I just renamed the expansion teams for realism sake.

Went under .500 with the Marlins in year 1.

Went 88-74 in year 2, clinching the top WC spot, but lost my playoff game to de Grom & the Mets even though my team only gave up 1 hit.

After the season, my owner said he was disappointed in my performance, because even though we surprisingly made the playoffs, I hadn’t yet raised our farm system to 6th from a starting point of 21 (I had raised it to 9th in two seasons) & because none of my drafted players had played an inning for us in the majors (um, I had just finished YEAR TWO — 2 drafts, one of them coming just 3 months before the owner’s report).

Wtf? That needs to be addressed.

Anyway, just finished my third season; went over .500 but missed the playoffs by 6 games. Haven’t simmed through the playoffs yet, but am afraid I’m going to be fired (despite what I think is a terrific first 3 seasons).

Have trades on hard.

He didn't fire you though, right? So let him be disappointed. Owners. :p What can you say?

No, but now that I narrowly missed the playoffs in year 3 I’m worried. I mean, if he was disappointed in my performance after taking Miami to the playoffs in Y2, I shudder to think of my fate when I advance to the end of Y3 tonight....

I have to admit that even though I do try to honor owner's wishes, when it isn't too ridiculous to do so, I also always play with the can't be fired option enabled. (I don't play in challenge mode.)
So it's easy for me to be cavalier about this.
Still, it does seem to me that real-life owners can be pretty unreasonable and not always completely rational also. So I tend to think OOTP does a pretty good job of mirroring reality in that regard.

I'd be less worried! I've thought my goose would be cooked one year when I failed every single owner expectation, but it ended up working out fine! I play in challenge mode and I'm still around as the GM in 2030, even though we still haven't nabbed the 'ship :D

You guys were right. Wasn’t fired after season 3, & in fact got an extension. But my manager retired & I have a difficult task in remaining competitive (which I love about running the Marlins).

I decided not to renew my scouting director or my hitting coach & brought new ones in, along with a new manager (to replace the retired one).

Had a lot of cap space due to intentionally acquiring expiring contracts previously. Unfortunately fan interest tanked when I let 2 popular players sign elsewhere—one of whom my owner made it a goal to re-sign (Sorry, boss, not in my plans).

Made one $10M pitcher signing on a guy from Japan; gave a handful of FAs minor league contracts; & then used my significant leftover cap space by hitting the trade block, where I dealt for a quality $10M starter & $7M reliever from teams in dire need of cap relief. Only 2 & 1 years left on their contracts, respectively. Also traded for one other interesting low salary player on the block at a position of need in exchange for a roster player at a position of depth.

That should do it heading into the preseason. May be on the lookout for a popular player to boost fan interest & ticket sales, though.

started this a couple days ago and man is it miserable. every single player on the team is opsing under .700. currently hoping to finish over .300

challenge mode but I use several house rules like not abusing retained salary/cash in trades or adding on "free" prospects until they decline. also set all finances/staff/minors/international signing to be handled by the assistant otherwise its way too easy.

I would push back, the only house rule I abide by is making sure trades are fair, but even with an unreal draft that netted me 5 players with 65+ OVR (including three in rounds 10+) and winning 114 games, I STILL lost in the playoffs because the playoffs are a crapshoot, no matter the handicap. It's the reason I keep coming back for more!

Thats true, I basically consider putting together a team that is winning 100+ a year as having completed the rebuild even if it takes a few seasons to roll the dice correctly in the playoffs

The only adjustments I made to the default settings were to put trades on “Hard” & to set the AI trade frequency to the lowest setting.

I haven’t seen the need to implement any house restraints yet. Most trades I make my assistant GM hates. And I haven’t accepted an AI offer in 3 seasons; they’re all trying to rip me off. The “hard” function works perfectly, IMO.

42 wins year one. My #4 overall pick has regressed to a 2 star potential already. Best prospect victor victor mesa missed the entire season so hes back in AAA. Best SP trevor richards needed tommy john after starting the last game of the year and is out all 2020. lol. nowhere to go but up.

Free agency class for 2019 is extremely weak and there weren't any good internationals either. I signed a 3* switch hitting 3B for just 2/7M and he is currently my cleanup hitter. Ideally he would be a bench utility infielder. Traded for josh reddick since the astros were just dumping his salary and I had room for it. Any real 2.5* player is an upgrade.

I made four rule 5 draft picks to get a new starting catcher, a platoon of 1B, and a reliever.

Rotation is still bad but wasn't historically terrible like the offense. Maybe there will be a decent free agent that lasts towards spring training I can get for cheap. 63 wins is the goal.

My advice would be

re-locate and find an owner who is willing to spend a little money

In too deep for that now...all the way in 2030 as it's been my main franchise over the past ~2 months!

Just finished Season 4 with the Marlins. 91-71 regular season, top wild card seed.

Ultimately made it to the NLCS, where I lost to the Dodgers, who then won the World Series.

Have some tough decisions to make this offseason. Luckily, a young minor league pitching prospect I traded for a couple of seasons ago broke through in a huge way this season. Need a few more prospects to follow suit.

I'm curious to see which one of us will get the job done first!

Good luck! I'm shooting for a title in my first 10 seasons. I think it will depend on my drafting and player development more than anything.

Just finished Season 5 with the Marlins (2023).

100-62 regular season record. Had a lot of injury problems, including my starting 1B tearing his meniscus on May 31 and missing the rest of the season.

The coup de grace was in the 2nd to last game of the regular season, my manager starts my "durable" 80/80 ace, league MVP & Cy Young the prior season (and won his 2nd Cy Young in a row after the season).

Bam! Radial nerve injury. Ace is out for 8 months and the playoffs.

Despite the 100-62 record, I finish 1 game behind the Mets in the East. We win the Wildcard matchup, but lose to the Dodgers in 5 games in the Divisional Series.

The quest marches on.

2031 and things are going great. Team has a new owner and payroll is at $200 million. Safe to say, these aren't your grandmother's Marlins

Nice! My budget is $130M for the upcoming 2024 season.