Now that Giancarlo Stanton has officially been traded to the New York Yankees I’ve looked at the trade and decided it was just a straight salary dump by Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins received two lower level minor leaguers right handed pitcher Jorge Guzman and middle infielder Jose Devers. I’m not sure if either guy will ever play in the major leagues. Now the Marlins did get a quality 2nd baseman in Starlin Castro who is on a pretty team friendly contract. Castro is signed for two more seasons with an option for 2020. He is due $10,857,143 million dollars this season and then $11,857,143 for 2019. His salary would jump to $16 million in 2020 if the option was picked up. There is also a $1 million dollar buyout if the Marlins or whoever Castro would be playing with didn’t want to pick up his option for the 2020 season.
Castro is just 27 years old, but already has eight years of major league experience. He’s a career .282 hitter and has shown more power in his two seasons with the Yankees than he did with the Chicago Cubs. Castro posted a career high 21 home runs in 2016 and looked like he was going to top that last season, but an injury limited him to 112 games and he finished with 16 home runs. With Castro’s salary you have to wonder if he’ll be the guy to be with the Marlins while they lose 100 games a season as Jeter dumps any player with a large salary.
Now the Yankees of course get Stanton in the deal, but the Marlins will also send them $30 million dollars if Stanton doesn’t opt out of his contract after the 2020 season. The Yankees will also pick up $265 million dollars of Stanton’s contract.
Miami had deals that would’ve been better for them with the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants, but Stanton used his no trade clause to veto both of those deals. Stanton informed the Marlins that he would only accept a trade to one of four teams. The Yankees, the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs or the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m actually wondering if Jeter contacted any of those other three teams or if he just went straight to his former team knowing they would be able and willing to take on a large part of Stanton’s salary.
With it appearing to be quite clear that the Marlins are just looking to dump salary you’d have to think that any team with a need or hoping to upgrade a position will be calling Jeter. I’m sure the Marlins would be willing to give someone Wei-Yin Chen if they where willing to take on the majority of his contract.
Chen is signed through 2020 and has a vesting option for the 2021 season. Chen is due $10 million dollar in 2018, but then his salary doubles to $20 million in 2019. In 2020 Chen will make $22 million and if he pitches 180 innings in 2020 or combines to pitch 360 innings in 2019 and 2020 his vesting option of $16 million dollars kicks in for the 2021 season.
Chen was injured most of last season pitching in only 9 games, starting 5 of them. He ended going 2-1 with a 3.82 E.R.A. With the expanding salary numbers and coming off of the injury in 2017 it might be difficult for the Marlins to find a taker for Chen right now, but if he gets off to a good start in 2018 they might have better lick find a trade partner.
I think the names you’re going to hear the most when it comes to teams looking for players from the Marlins are going to be outfielders Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna.
Ozuna is in his last year of arbitration. He made $3.5 million dollars last season, but out up big number sand will be in for a huge bump in salary. Some projections have Ozuna’s salary ended up right around $11 million dollars for this season. You’d think he’d be a top trade candidate because there’s very little chance the Marlins would or could resign him when he becomes a free agent after the 2018 season.
Yelich is also an interesting name. He’s signed through the 2021 season with an option for 2022. He’s due $7 million dollars this season, His salary jumps to $9.75 million dollars in 2019. In 2020 Yelich will be paid $12.5 million dollars and then for the 2021 season he’ll receive $14 million dollars. In 2022 Yelich can either be paid $15 million dollars or be bought out for $1.25 million dollars. Yelich’s contract is actually pretty sensible as far as baseball standards go, but you have to wonder with the financial situation the new Marlins ownership finds itself in if Yelich might have to be dealt.
I’m sure the Marlins would love to find someone to take veterans like Martin Prado and Edison Volquez, but I’m not sure if there would be many teams interested in them unless the Marlins would pick up quite a bit of salary for those players and that’s not what they’re looking to do.
While it’s understandable that Major League Baseball wanted to see someone like Derek Jeter in an ownership role, but it’s unclear why they would allow him and his group to purchase the Marlins when it’s become very clear now that they couldn’t handle the financial status of the teams payroll. Reports are that Jeter the Marlins plan to trim $90 million dollars from the teams payroll; so the Stanton deal was just the start of things for Miami.
Now the Marlins averaged 20,395 fans per home game last season. That put them 28th out of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball. The only teams the Marlins outdrew where the Oakland A’s (18,466) and the Tampa Bay Rays (15,670), but with Stanton already gone and more to come what are the reasons for a Marlins fan to support this team and go to a game. Also remember it wasn’t too long ago that the taxpayers in Miami where hit up so the team could build a new ballpark.
Please let me know what you think of the Marlins situation and who the next player you think will be traded is.
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available for you to listen to any time you want on TuneIn.com
Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime
Sports Time Radio 