Sit down.
Shut up.
And get off Derek Jeter’s back.
This deal to trade Miami Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees isn’t about Jeter. It’s still about Jeffrey Loria, if you’ve paid attention. It says even when the former Marlins robber-baron is gone, his stench remains. It lingers in the decaying air over Marlins Park, just as it will for a couple of squalid years as his mess gets cleaned up.
If it gets cleaned up, that is. If Jeter is up for the task. That remains to be seen, just as Jeter’s next move now is, too. The bad news isn’t done for Marlins fans. There are more trades coming, and they should be coming in short order now.
Since this new ownership started down this road, since they decided not to lose tens of millions dollars for a non-contender next year, they can’t tear down this roster halfway. Painful as it is for fans to watch, they need to keep going. Tear it all the way down. Build this organization the proper way, because you only get one swing at it.
That means it’s just a start, trading Stanton to the New York Yankees and Dee Gordon to Seattle. Marcell Ozuna, the Gold Glove outfielder coming off a career-high 37 home runs, should be the next to go. He’ll get a better price than either Stanton or Gordon due to blend of talent and contract.
Don’t stop there, either. Catcher J.T. Realmuto will command the biggest price of anyone the Marlins have, a scout said, considering his talent, toughness and minimum contract. Trade him. Trade Christian Yelich while you’re at it, too. He’s on the edge of greatness. He’ll command big talent in return, too.
It hurts to type all that, much less do it. But what’s the choice? Hanging on to some good-to-great players to limp through a couple of 60-win seasons even as they creep toward getting the kind of huge money the Marlins won’t pay?
Do the full surgery now. Tear this team down completely. The Marlins don’t need to win a few meaningless games with Ozuna or Realmuto. They won’t draw a single fan more if they hold on to Yelich or trade him.
We’ve lived this baseball hell before, of course. This is Fire Sale No. 4 with the Marlins, so you know the drill. There will be promises of a sound blueprint. There will be prospects built up even when no one knows if they’ll make it. There will be 12-step recovery plans for fans that won’t get by Step 4 — “Utter apathy.” There will be a very Sabermetrics computation for the young prospects that will read: “Come back in three years and see if they make it.”
There also will be comic attempts to suggest how to market the team: Marlins Man Night (dress like him and get in for free?) Derek Jeter Autograph Night? Derek Jeter At Shortstop Night (why not?) Jeffrey Loria In The Dunk Tank Night (sellout).
Jeter In the Dunk Tank Night.
Sellout?
It remains mystifying why Jeter got this team for basically no money. Remember, he put up $25 million, but is being paid $5 million a year. . Why did commissioner Rob Manfred allow this? Why did the owners go approve it?
Still, this trade of Stanton isn’t Jeter’s doing. He’ll get the focus of anger, of mocking, of second-guessing here. But Loria remains the problem. The worst of him is still here. Even when he collects $1.2 billion for selling the team, he’s not done bilking the Marlins fan.
It wasn’t enough for Loria to give Stanton a back-loaded, $325 million contract. But a no-trade clause, too? Don’t ask why he did it. He knew he’d sell the team before the real pain set in.
The money is far too much for the Marlins to pay and the no-trade clause made Stanton the decider of any trade. He exercised his no-trade clause when the Marlins had better deals in place with San Francisco and St. Louis. That is Stanton’s right, too.
There’s no criticism of him, just as there can’t be for Jeter trading him. The Marlins need to dump Stanton’s contract. The Yankees reportedly are taking $265 million of the $295 million owed. Of course, they’re also reportedly sending back a couple prospects and second baseman/shortstop Starlin Castro, who is 28 and costs $7 million.
There’s someone else to trade. If the Marlins didn’t want Dee Gordon at $10 million a year, why would they want Castro at $7 million?
There’s no telling if this works. Dave Dombrowski traded off prime-time players in 1998 and laid the foundation to a future World Series champion. Larry Beinfest did a couple of times and went nowhere. Now Jeter does it with his management team.
Jeter has made some missteps in his opening inning in South Florida. Trading Stanton isn’t one of them. It has to be done, just as some more uncomfortable business should be coming. If you’re tearing this team down to start over, tear it all the way down.
