High and In-Tight 12.11.07

Posted by Ian Smart on 12.11.2007

Marlins fans should not stand for this.

Light the torches.

Grab your pitchforks.

Round up the villagers.

It's time for a revolt.

By trading Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for six prospects, the Florida Marlins have committed an egregious sin against their fans. Only four years removed from winning a World Series, the last two pieces of that championship team have been jettisoned. This has come to be expected from the Marlins, but this time, it has simply gone too far.

In 1997 when the Marlins parted ways with Bobby Bonilla, Moises Alou, Gary Sheffield, and Kevin Brown, it was reportedly due to Huizenga's financial difficulties. The fire-sale led to the Marlins historic 1998 season, becoming the only team to win the World Series and then to subsequently lose 100 games. The trades that had been made in the aftermath of the 1997 World Series did yield some positive results; Derrek Lee and A.J. Burnett were acquired for example. Additionally, the Marlins five consecutive sub .500 seasons enabled them to draft Josh Beckett, amongst others, and the team was able to make moves such as drafting Johan Santana (yes, that Johan Santana) in the Rule V draft.

The Marlins returned to respectability in 2003, when during the off-season the Marlins decided to spend some money signed, and signed Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Pierre, and called up Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. They, along with a group of young starters, Brad Penny, Burnett, Beckett, and Mark Redman powered the Marlins into the Wild Card and then into the World Series, where they once again became Champions. In the aftermath of their second World Series, the Marlins allowed Ivan Rodriguez and Ugueth Urbina to walk, and traded away Derrek Lee in a cost-cutting move. After two seasons, in which the Marlins failed to reach the postseason, the club once again decided to jettison its major pieces: Burnett, Beckett, Todd Jones, Carlos Delgado, Mike Lowell, Paul Lo Duca, Luis Castillo, Juan Pierre and Edgar Renteria. The Marlins were able to pick up talented players through their trades (Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, Hanley Ramirez, and Mike Jacobs), but the loss of talent proved to be too great as the Marlins posted another two consecutive losing seasons in 2006 and 2007.

Throughout it all, fans of the Marlins could cling to the fact that the team was rebuilding; the team had a group of young players to build upon in the years to come. Looking at the 2007 line-up, the Marlins seemed to be in tremendous shape with incredible youngsters coming into their own. Hanley Ramirez put up an MVP calibre season, Dan Uggla continued to impress at second base, and Miguel Cabrera had another astounding season at the plate. The prevailing idea was that the Marlins were looking ahead, and were simply not going to throw around the lucrative deals that other teams would for top tier talent- a defendable if not laudable endeavour. As a result, the Marlins had the second lowest payroll in all of baseball at just over $30 million in 2007. It was possible to defend the decisions that had been made since 2003, because everything was picking up again and the Marlins looked to be the NL's team to beat in one to two years; until Tuesday…Tuesday the Marlins told their fans and their players that fielding a competitive team is not their intention. By trading away two of their three most valuable players, the Florida Marlins have revealed that the organization is no longer a baseball club looking to win.

That statement might read as being hyperbolic, but I assure you, it isn't. Unfortunately, due to the economics of professional baseball, small market teams have to sacrifice talented players, because it is simply impossible to pay the contracts that players command. We have all heard the criticisms directed towards the Yankees and the Red Sox for spending exorbitant amounts of money to sign free agents. I am not arguing that the Marlins have to triple their 2007 payroll, so that they can compete with the big-market clubs. I am simply saying that in 2007 a payroll as small as the Marlins is absurd, and insulting to their fans.

As it stands, the Marlins 2008 payroll will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $10 million dollars- less than what Gil Meche will earn next year. Now some may argue that the salaries of professional baseball players are inflated and the Marlins are paying players what they are worth, but the reality is that in order to compete in professional sports you have to play the game to a certain degree. This doesn't mean that you have to pay $18 million for Andruw Jones or give an over-the-hill Tom Glavine $8 million. It means that when you have a 24 year old, who is already one of the ten best position players in baseball, you have to spend the money to keep them in your organization. Even if Cabrera asks for $200 million over ten years when he becomes a free-agent in 2009, you owe it to your fans to pay the salary; you'd be buying into a guy coming into his prime who is already one of the best offensive players in the game.

The same can be said of Dontrelle, who had a disappointing 2007, but is only 25 ( 26 in January), which means his best years are more than likely in front of him, and he has shown in the past that he is capable of being a dominant pitcher. Any team in the league would jump at the chance to rebuild their franchise two players of this calibre. By trading them away for even younger players, the Marlins have set themselves even further back on the path to fielding a contender once again.

This move also raises questions about the viability of the franchise as a whole. Assuming for the moment that the reason the Marlins traded away two of their most valuable players was in order to cut cost, how can you consider the organization a legitimate franchise? Cabrera and Willis cost the team a combined $ 13.8 million in 2007. We'll assume Cabrera goes to arbitration this summer and get an additional $1.2 million (unlikely based on the fact that he went to arbitration last year with slightly better numbers). Add an extra $15 million to the Marlins payroll and you have a team salary of –ballpark- $25 million. That's a whole team for less than the Yankees pay A-Rod. Now, A-Rod is currently a better Third Baseman than Cabrera (34 more runs created and 2.2 more batting wins), but at a little more than a quarter of the price Cabrera is certainly a better deal. Even at the hypothesized $20 million a year, Cabrera and A-Rod are arguably of similar value to a team with a finite payroll. So why did the Marlins choose to trade away Cabrera and Willis? Can they not afford them?

If this is truly the case, how can the Marlins remain a viable franchise? How long will a fan base support a team that is literally going nowhere, and that has no prospects for improving themselves, because they do not have the capital to retain their assets? You can only sell the dream of catching lightning in a bottle and winning the World Series with a sub $20 million dollar payroll for so long before fans are ultimately turned off. But maybe that is the strategy; maybe the Marlins are intentionally sabotaging themselves.

It is no secret that the Marlins want the city of Miami to build them a new stadium. One would presume that the city will only put the money up for a new stadium if they believe it either helps the city or the franchise is going to relocate. Of course for Jeffrey Loria, the easiest way to relocate a franchise is to sell off all its valuable assets, have the team perform poorly for a number of years, alienate the fan base and then sell the team to Major League Baseball when it becomes financially insolvent (I feel as though this has happened before). The proposed deal with San Antonio fell through in 2006, but that does not mean that a new deal is out of the question, and a team that has such a small operating budget is easier to move than one that is weighted with high player salaries.

At the same time, if the team is going to stay in South Florida, and Loria is convinced that the city won't pickup enough of the tab for the new stadium, he may cut on-field spending in order to balance out the cost of building a new stadium. Then, presumably, once the stadium is built, he can spend the new money from luxury boxes and alike to improve his on-field product.

Clearly I am speculating as to what Loria's intentions are, but it is clear that he is not trying to win baseball games in the near future. Going into 2008, the Marlins look depleted. They have Hanley Ramirez (for how long?), they have Uggla, and Hermida, and a pitching staff that has a ton of potential, but their prospects of winning are as abysmal as then have been the last few years.

It's going to be another long summer in South Florida, just like the two previous, only now there is a lot less hope for the future.

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