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Did Marlins Get Fair Value for Yunel Escobar?

December 5, 2012 in Offseason

The Marlins clearly made a deal with the Blue Jays that was fixated on the future. Most have different opinions about the direction of that future, whether or not it is a bright one, but the Marlins modus operandi right now is to bolster their assets in the minor leagues and build back up what they have repleted.

It was widely reported that the Marlins were dumping salary in the deal with the Blue Jays, but under reported that they took back some salary with Yunel Escobar, the talented but maligned SS. He is slated to make $5M this upcoming season, with two years of team options after that, adding lots of flexibility to any team that acquired him. Fish Stripes did a pretty good breakdown of his trade value, even assessing whether or not the Marlins got fair trade in return claiming that the Marlins sold low with Escobar.

I think it is safe to say that the Marlins did sell a bit low with Escobar at this point because they were looking to get their house in order more so than play up any trade value that may come their way with Escobar in the upcoming season. It seems trade value will peak when teams are in need of talent for the playoffs, which would come at the trade deadline. But imagine the Marlins building a solid team defense, winning with younger talent, and then shipping off what could be a critical piece in the middle of the season – that may be damaging again to the perception of this team’s direction.

Then again, this was a deal that the Marlins targeted Hechevarria as their SS for the future. Escobar added more value to the deal, but didn’t fit with what the Marlins are trying to do. This begs the question, did the Marlins get the deal they wanted with the Blue Jays, or did the Blue Jays? Josh Johnson is going to hit his peak at this point of his career and the Marlins dealt away his services. With Nolasco requesting a trade publicly, through his agent, you have to wonder why the Marlins kept him and dealt Johnson. A better scenario would have been to keep Johnson and send Nolasco, and then to have gotten Brett Lawrie instead of Yunel Escobar. Lawrie would have fit the 3B job and could have been penciled in as a starter; instead the Marlins traded Escobar to get back marginal prospect Derek Dietrich who may project out as a 3B down the line.

If the Marlins didn’t get fair value in return for Escobar, then they didn’t get fair value in return for the group they sent off to Toronto. The Marlins should be trying to get back a surplus but instead, seem to be coming up a bit short. With the trade of Miguel Cabrera back in 2007 and the Hanley Ramirez trade this past year, the Marlins do not have a lot of equity in how they deal and will have to do a lot more to repair their tarnished image to their fan base and the rest of the league.

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Evan Longoria Provides A Standard for the Marlins and Giancarlo Stanton

December 1, 2012 in Offseason

Just six games into his big league career, the Rays saw enough in Evan Longoria to make a commitment to him right away. Back in April 2008, the club signed their rookie to a 6 year, $17.5M deal. All he did was go on and win the Rookie of the Year award that year, logging a .272 AVG with 27 HRs while manning 3B. With incentives, the contract could have ballooned to about $44M over that span.

Recently, Longoria just agreed to an extension that will see him stay with the same club for his entire career, wrapping him up until 2023 with a deal that could be worth $144M.

The Marlins need to take notes. Recent discussions in the press with Larry Beinfest have revealed that the Marlins have not reached out to their angry young slugger, Giancarlo Stanton, who announced on Twitter his frustration after the trade with the Blue Jays that watched the Marlins jettison about $100M from its payroll. The response was that the Marlins wanted to give some distance to the situation and allow feelings to cool down a bit. Huh? It is right then and there that they should have stepped up and made certain that you have a plan and this is phase 1 of that plan. They should be asserting that they are committed to winning and to having Stanton as the centerpiece of that vision. This would help assuage Stanton’s anger and frustration, and also communicate a little more openly with the extremely frustrated fan base that there is a direction here, too.

Stanton has a lot more power potential than Longoria and when stacked next to Miguel Cabrera, he could be possibly the second generational player the Marlins have in their grasp. Stanton has 93 home runs in just 3 seasons, 37 of which came this year in a spacious new ball park despite a serious knee injury during the season.

Perhaps this is the biggest difference between the Rays and the Marlins despite only about 300 miles of terrain. The Rays make commitments to their players and compete in arguably the toughest division in all of baseball. They have been able to build with young players and commit to them while at the same time gradually fortifying their fan base with consistency and winning. The Marlins have rolled the dice too much and as a result, there has been too much turnover and turmoil. It is hard to build fan loyalty when there is no solid tradition of winning, competing, and players that you can build a product with. The only Marlin that really can be considered an associative player with this organization is Jeff Conine, who helped win in 1997 and came back on a second tour of duty to win again in 2003 with that team. Miguel Cabrera was the team sweetheart back in 2003 as a 20 year old rookie, and he just won the first triple crown in baseball in over 40 years – with the Tigers. One day when he enters into the Hall of Fame, it will be as a Tiger, not a Marlin.

In Stanton, the Marlins have a chance to get things right. Gone are the excuses about the stadium and not enough revenue. If they want to make this latest trade out to be a baseball move, and not a payroll move, they have to make some commitments. Stanton is obviously a great young power hitter and the Marlins would be foolish to not make a strong commitment to him right now. In doing so, they may not only turn things around and net a Longoria-like dedication to this franchise, but he would also have the confidence to grow into the leader on this team and be a player that fans can stand behind. Stanton could be an anchor for this franchise but the Marlins will have to suck up their pride and approach him in much the same way the Rays approached Longoria.

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Javier Vazquez Comes Through

May 22, 2011 in Starting Pitching

As recent as Friday afternoon, and prior to the game on Saturday, his start was being touted as the most important of the season for him. “I think [this start] is very important for Javi, but I think it’s more important for us, the Florida Marlins,’’ manager Edwin Rodriguez said Friday.

Javier Vazquez has not, as of yet, delivered on the $7M contract he inked this past offseason. He is 2-4 with a 7.55 ERA and has been prone to giving up the long ball and also starting games off in the hole. The problem? According to pitching coach Randy St. Claire, it has been trying to be perfect.  “He needs to be aggressive with secondary pitches. He’s trying to be perfect with those secondary pitches.’’

Well, yesterday he got it right. He pitched 7 shutout innings for only his 2nd quality start of the season. He limited the in-state rival Rays to only three hits and two walks and punched in 7Ks for his highest total in a while. Vazquez also out-dueled ace, David Price.

Is he back on track? We’ll see. Vazquez has to learn to live by mixing up his pitches more as the velocity is not there that used to be there when he was younger. He has the makeup to be a difference maker and on this staff, he has the respect to anchor it as the established veteran. Sure, Josh Johnson is the de facto staff ace – and would be on most any other staff in the league. But with Johnson on the DL, it is even more crucial that Vazquez makes good on his $7M contract – he’ll just have to do it more with guile and smarts than ever before.

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Rays in World Series; What Does This Mean for Marlins Offseason?

October 20, 2008 in Commentary, Offseason

I know it is a strange thing to ask – so let’s first give congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays for making it into their first ever World Series. They went from worst to first – and truly turned around one of the worst franchises in baseball. It was done in a very short amount of time as the new ownership continued to stress building with young talent and focusing on their hitting surplus to get them there.

I hate to sound like a bandwagoner but I actually picked the Rays to win the whole thing back on October 7th. I just feel that this team is playing the best baseball in the league these days and they have been doing it for so long now. So, good luck Rays. I hope I didn’t curse you.

This begs the question though for us Marlin fans, what about us? The Marlins were hanging tough at the end of this season staying in contention when no one picked this team to even finish anywhere near .500. The fact of the matter is, this team is very talented and really, just a few blown saves from a playoff appearance and who knows? The pivotal sign was the final series against the Phillies – the Marlins blew them out in the first game, but dropped the next two in close matches.

And that team is now in the World Series facing the Rays, who swept the Marlins earlier in the year by the way.

Still, if you’re a fan of the Marlins, you got to feel pretty good about things. The Marlins need to re-tool their lineup, get more contact and put the ball in play more, but the pitching is there if it can finally stay healthy. Will the Rays amazing season push the Marlins brass to dig a little deeper into their pockets in order to get back into the playoffs? It is an interesting proposition but signs point to no as the Marlins will most likely continue to be frugal and not overpay for talent and instead look to maximize value on their returns.

There is virtually a whole team on this roster that is arbitration eligible – which means the Marlins will most likely be faced with some hard decisions and some turnover. Yet, if the Rays can beat the Phillies, who are in the World Series, the measuring stick for the Marlins is not all that big in terms of landing into the playoffs again.

And maybe the Rays success will push the Marlins to be a little bit more competitive during this upcoming offseason.

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