Show Me The Money!

How Marlins owner Jeffrey Luria played the game, screwed his fan base (a second time), and how the "greatest commissioner this sport has seen" allowed it all to happen.

Tuesday night, baseball changed not only in Miami and Toronto, but across the nation on the heels of a blockbuster trade that saw multiple Marlins stars pack their bags for the northern border. Shortstop Jose Reyes, starting pitcher Mark Buehrle, perennial Cy Young candidate Josh Johnson, utilityman and speedster Emilio Bonifacio, and that guy you might have had on your fantasy team in MLB 07: The Show, John Buck were all sent to Toronto last night, despite Buehrle and Reyes being on the team for one season. In return? Miami receives a disgruntled shortstop (Yunel Escobar), an untested shortstop (Adeiny Hechavarria), Henderson Alvarez (Henderson Alvarez), minor league starters Justin Nicolino and Anthony DeSclafani, minor league outfielder Jake Marisnick, and veteran/backup catcher Jeff Mathis. Seem a little unbalanced? It's not, I'm telling you Buster Olney texted me last night and said the next Griffey is waiting in Jake Marisnick.



Unbalanced doesn't do this trade justice. Nothing short of pathetic, tragic and offensive describe this latest Marlins fire sale. Giancarlo Stanton said it best last night via Twitter, "Alright, I'm pissed off!!! Plain & Simple." That is how every Marlins player, whether they were or were not involved in the trade, should feel, that is how every Marlins employee who cares about the team should feel, that is how every Marlins fan should feel, and honestly, how every baseball fan should feel. This trade is a slap in the face, not because it is so unfair, people outside of Miami and Toronto as well as their respective rivals could care about that. We should care because Bud Selig has just laughed in all of our faces.

Selig has the absolute power to overturn this embarassment of a salary dump. He could see right through this and realize the competition of the league is at stake here, as is obvious fraud. Yet he sat back last night and this morning, and allowed the most humiliating trade in baseball history to go through. And you wonder why more people are watching the NBA than the MLB these days?

To fully comprehend this headline, one must know about the way baseball and Bud Selig screwed over Montreal and the Expos in the earlier part of last decade. 

A lawsuit was filed by the owners of the Montreal Expos on July 16, 2002 against, hmmm, sound familiar, Jeffrey Loria, David Samson, and Bud Selig. The complaint filed suits against the three for eliminating baseball in Montreal. Obvious evidence existed through Samson taking away complimentary tickets for sponsors, Loria stopping broadcasts of televised games in the area, and Selig allowing all of this to happen. Loria went on to take advantage of numerous cash calls that swayed the direction of the franchise for the worse, which gave him the capital to eventually take over the, then, Florida Marlins. Of course, that purchase was a lot easier when MLB bought the Expos for $120 million, handed Loria a $38.5 million, interest-free loan, and watched him purchase the Marlins for $158.5 million. 

What happened to Montreal, you might ask? MLB played them like a fiddle. They sent the club to San Juan, Puerto Rico for 22 "home games". Throughout this whole mockery, the Expos were tied for the National League wild card lead in late August. MLB couldn't have this happen, however, so they rebuked Montreal's right to September call-ups. What's that? Oh no, every other franchise could use the call-ups, just not Montreal. Sure it makes sense, Bud Selig is the greatest commish, go him!

Obviously, Montreal faltered down the stretch as competitve disadvantage doesn't begin to sum up this mess, and on the final day of the 2004 season, Bud Selig happily announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C, which is what he wanted all along. More fans, more revenue, more money for him. Selig wins. And so do his friends, Loria and Samson. That's all that matters. 

So, now some eight years later, the same thing is happening. Loria looked good, he got the city to fork over a new stadium (which could be an entirely new story. The fact that the "fans" in Miami need to pay about $2.5 million in taxes for that stadium is horrifying), a fresh new uniform and look, and plenty of new players. Well, sometimes things don't go the way we plan, huh? The stadium didn't feel, can you blame Miami patrons? Their team has screwed them in the back year after year after year, I would have jumped ship years ago. Money was lost on that investment, but not out of Loria, Samson, or Selig's pockets. Out of the people who moved on from their traitoresque team and paid no attention to the club's pockets. That seems fair, right? And now, those players that Miami brought in, Reyes, Buehrle, Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, their all gone. Ironically, they are all in Canada in Toronto, not too far from our buddies in Montreal.

A firesale is nothing new for this franchise, I was not suprised by that. This team has traded some of the best players in the league away over the years. Carlos Lee, Mike Lowell, Paul lo Duca, Josh Beckett, Dontrelle Willis, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Ivan Rodriguez, AJ Burnett, Derrek Lee, Luis Castillo, Juan Pierre, Carlos Delgado, Josh Willingham, Dan Uggla, Cody Ross, Kevin Gregg, and now Reyes, Johnson, Buehrle, and Ramirez have all come and gone. There are more All-Star appearances between that group than there are wins for last season's Charlotte Bobcat's team (see, NBA > MLB). This firesale is an annual occurance for this franchise, but never one this big and obviously in favor of the owner's bottom line. Miami has tons of money to spend, their payroll was still only $119 million last season. Forbes had this club valued around $425 million last season, one can only imagine the amount of dough Loria and Samson are rolling in now that their payroll is under $25 million. 

The team that will be on the field now is a team of untested little kids. True, the Marlins have usually found gold that way by fielding an inexperienced team after getting rid of all the stars, and have found success in the win column that way over the past decade. But this trade got rid of literally every major piece of the puzzle outside of Stanton, who would you really blame if he refused to play for them this season? He doesn't have a no-trade clause, because no Marlins players do since trading is the name of the game in South Beach, but he could voice his opinion and probably would be sold anyway to make fatter pockets for the Three Musketeers. This all is neglecting to mention that Ozzie Guillen was fired this offseason for butting heads with Loria, something that Mother Theresa probably would have done. The Marlins are either trying to play themselves out of Miami through the exact same sick scam they used in Montreal, or are just trying to make more money by bringing in any revenue they can and spending nothing. Loria isn't paying for that stadium, taxpayers are. Loria isn't shelling out that shared revenue check, he's cashing it. Loria isn't paying Jose Reyes, Toronto is. Loria isn't a fan of the game, neither is Selig if he allows this. So why should we?