The Marlins have won their arbitration hearing with right-hander Calvin Faucher, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports. The panel ruled that Faucher will receive an $1.8MM salary in 2026, rather than the $2.05MM salary he was seeking.
Faucher finished the 2025 season with two years and 156 days of Major League service time, thus qualifying for an extra year of arbitration eligibility as a Super Two player. While Faucher and his reps at ACES are undoubtedly disappointed that the arbiters didn’t rule in their favor, the $1.8MM figure will now serve as the base for what the righty hopes will be steadily escalating salaries over his three remaining arb years.
Arbitration panels tend to look more at traditional counting stats than advanced metrics, so Faucher’s camp surely highlighted the righty’s 15 saves in 20 opportunities in 2025, as Faucher was the Marlins’ top choice at closer. Faucher posted a 3.28 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate over 60 1/3 innings. While the K% wasn’t anything special and the walk rate was below average, Faucher did a tremendous job of inducing soft contact, which helped him generate outs with his 45.8% grounder rate.
While Faucher pitched well, the Marlins still made a point of upgrading their pen by bringing in Pete Fairbanks on a one-year, $13MM contract. Fairbanks figures to get the bulk of save opportunities, so a move back to a set-up role will hamper Faucher from an arbitration standpoint, as holds aren’t held in as high regard as saves. With two solid seasons under his belt since arriving in Miami, Faucher has now established himself as a quality Major League reliever, and will again be a key piece of the Marlins’ relief corps.
Faucher’s case was the last arbitration hearing of the 2025-26 offseason. Of the 18 players who didn’t have an agreement worked out by the January 8 figure-filing deadline, seven avoided a hearing by agreeing to a contract with their team, and the other 11 took their cases to the arb panel. It was a successful year for the players, as they went 8-3 against teams in arbitration decisions.
