Philly Front Office

The Miami Marlins have been around for 32 years now and are known and beloved around baseball as a great farm team for the rest of the league. NO ONE trades away their talent like the Marlins. Maybe they were prospects, maybe they were late bloomers, or perhaps they were just incredibly talented players that the Marlins just had no intention of ever paying, it never matters. If you are good, the Marlins are thinking of getting rid of you the day you sign. They are so adept at this, that they can field not one, but TWO full rosters of traded stars. I tried to split the starting pitchers as their likely position on a staff instead of putting them 1-5 and 6-10. Also, only one bullpen guy for each team.

Monday, June 16 at 6:40p – Mick Abel v. Sandy Alcantara (R)
Tuesday, June 17 at 6:10p – Jesus Luzardo v. Cal Quantrill (R)
Wednesday, June 18 at 6:40p – Ranger Suarez v. Adam Mazur (R)
Thursday, June 19 at 6:40p – Cristopher Sanchez v. Edward Cabrera

Phillies at Marlins Loan Depot Park

I will get these updated as the series goes on. Let’s go twice around the diamond with all the traded Marlins:

All Marlins First Team:

• Catcher: Mike Piazza – A Marlin for 5 games, Piazza went on to receive MVP votes the next 3 seasons after leaving the Marlins, which didn’t include the 167 OPS+ he had the rest of the year after leaving Miami.
• 1st Base: Adrian Gonzalez – On June 5th, 2000 the Marlins made Gonzalez the first pick in the draft…three years later he was traded for future attempted murderer and relief pitcher Ugueth Urbina. He would go on to put up 43 WAR for his career and make 5 all-star teams, receive MVP votes in 8 seasons, and win 4 gold gloves.
• 2nd Base: Luis Arraez – Arraez just won his 3rd consecutive batting title, went to his 3rd consecutive all-star game, and received MVP votes in his 3rd consecutive year. I refused to get my son his jersey when he was a Marlin last year because you just knew that kind of production wasn’t long for the team.
• 3rd Base: Miguel Cabrera – In his 5 seasons with the Marlins, Miggy won a World Series, received MVP votes each season, and established himself as a legitimate triple crown threat. UGH…NO THANK YOU! After being traded to Detroit, he would win 4 batting titles, 2 MVPs, and the first Triple Crown in 45 years. Somehow that still sells him short.
• Shortstop: Hanley Ramirez – After a runner-up MVP finish for the Marlins in 2009, he was eventually traded to the Dodgers where he would regain his form for another Top-10 MVP finish in 2013. To be fair, Hanley is one of the few Marlins to actually receive an extension.
• Left Field: Moises Alou – A mercenary of the ’97 World Series team, Alou would have his best season as a pro the following year for Houston, finishing 3rd in MVP voting. In 2000 he hit .355 with 30 HRs. He would have 4 season with MVP votes and 4 all-star teams after leaving the Marlins.
• Center Field: Christian Yelich – After 5 solid seasons with Miami, the Marlins traded him to Milwaukee where he immediately broke out finishing first and second in MVP voting the following two years winning two battling titles. Even the Brewers paid a guy the Marlins wouldn’t.
• Right Field: Gary Sheffield – I don’t care about the steroids accusations because Sheffield was everyone’s favorite player as a kid in the 90s. There isn’t a 40 year old alive who won’t wrap a whiffle ball bat like Gary given the chance. After a top-10 MVP season in ’96 and a World Series in ’97, the Marlins would trade away 323 more HRs and 4 more Top 10 MVP finishes
• DH: Giancarlo Stanton – After hitting 59 HRs, knocking in 132, and putting up 8.1 WAR in his MVP season, the Marlins traded Stanton to the Yankees before his recently signed extension jumped in season salary. In retrospect, the Marlins got his best years, the Yankees got his worst, and the player got paid. That’s good in my book, but really sucks for all the fans who had to watch him leave after winning MVP.
• SP1: Johan Santana – Santana and his five top-5 Cy Young finishes (2 wins) was a Marlin for about 5 minutes before they traded his Rule 5 selection to the Twins for a guy named Jared Camp. For what it’s worth though, Camp did throw 606 innings of 4.50 ERA ball in his 8 career minor league seasons.
• SP2: Zac Gallen – The NJ native and Eagles fan pitched 7 games for the Marlins before being traded to Arizona (for Jazz Chisholm) where he has 3 Top-10 Cy Young finishes so far. I will get to the trade that brought him to the Marlins later.
• SP3: Jesus Luzardo – Traded to the Phillies this past off season, outside of 2 outings where he as tipping pitches, Luzardo has looked like the best pitcher in the NL. There is still a lot of meat on this bone, but Luzardo throws 98 and looks like a Game 2 playoff starter for the Phillies.
• SP4: Brad Penny – Penny had 4 up and down years for the Marlins before breaking out for a Top-3 Cy Young finish and two 16 win seasons for the Dodgers.
• SP5: Livan Hernandez – The local hero and World Series MVP was traded to the Giants during his Age 24 season. WTF? The rubber armed Cuban would go on to make 2 all-star teams and lead the league in innings pitched 4 times.
• Bullpen: Trevor Hoffman – After 35 innings as a rookie with the 93 Marlins, Hoffman was part of the Gary Sheffield trade with the Padres. I can’t blame them there. Hoffman retired the All-Time Saves leader with 2 of his 601 coming with the Marlins.

Worst Owners in Baseball

All Marlins Second Team:

• Catcher: JT Realmuto – From age 26 with the Marlins to age 32 with the Phillies, JT laid claim to the Best Catcher in Baseball title. His Phillies totals double his Marlins totals in most statistics including HRs (114-59), RBIs (408-243), SBs (69-31), and walks (228-122) while also including 2 Gold Gloves, 2 Silver Sluggers, and 2 MVP finishes.
• 1st Base: Derrek Lee – Lee was okay for the Marlins but broke out big for the Cubs in his late 20s including 3 MVP finishes, 2 All-Star teams, and 2 Gold Gloves. Nothing was better than his 7.7 WAR 2005 season though where he led the league in average (.335), hits (199), doubles (50), slugging (.662), and OPS+ (174), finishing 3rd in MVP voting behind only a huge Andruw Jones year and a regular Albert Pujols campaign.
• 2nd Base: Jazz Chisholm – Time will tell on this one, but Jazz’s excitement was wasted in Miami and he is already having more productive seasons in NY. The return seems to be doing better in Miami as well though.
• 3rd Base: Mike Lowell – Lowell’s final season in Miami was pretty bad, but that didn’t stop him from having one last good season for Boston in 2007 where he would bat .324, put up 5 WAR, finish 5th in MVP voting, and win MVP of the World Series.
• Shortstop: Edgar Renteria – Despite a great rookie season at 19 and a World Series win at 20, the Marlins shipped the 21 year old Renteria to St. Louis for very little. Not surprisingly, Renteria blossomed into a solid player with all but 5 of his 32.5 career WAR coming away from Miami. That includes 4 All-Star seasons, 3 Silver Sluggers, and 2 MVP finishes.
• Left Field: Jeff Conine – Mr. Marlin is here just to point out what a joke that title is. He spent only 5 seasons with the team in his first stint before coming back later. They traded him away…TWICE. He did finish with MVP votes twice for the fish, but they act like he is a team legend, not just another decent player they refused to pay.
• Center Field: Juan Pierre – I don’t know if Pierre was actually good, but he was fast as hell and annoying as anything. I could not have been happier when he and his 324 more stolen bases was traded away from South Florida.
• Right Field: Starling Marte – I can’t blame the Marlins for trading Marte to the A’s for Jesus Luzardo, but Marte still had 2 more productive seasons in him including an All-Star and MVP finish in 2022 for the Mets. In his first 176 games after leaving Miami he put up 5.8 WAR and a 131 OPS+
• DH: Marcell Ozuna – This one is a full applause for the Marlins. Ozuna is an awful person who they managed to trade for Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen. It was after a great MVP level season though where Ozuna put up 5.7 WAR and win GG, SS, and was an All-Star. He has also had a 4th and a 6th place MVP finish since then, but he’s still a shithead.
• SP1: Josh Beckett – The 2003 World Series hero and MVP was traded by the Marlins at 26. In Boston he had a runner up Cy Young finish and another Top-10. In the post season he won another WS in Boston winning ALCS MVP in the process and being known as one of the best big game pitchers of his era.
• SP2: Kevin Brown – Brown spent 2 amazing seasons in Miami, won a World Series, and was then shipped to San Diego where he promptly led the league in WAR and FIP while finishing 3rd in Cy Young voting and 16th for MVP. He had two more top-6 Cy finishes after that for the Dodgers.
• SP3: Dontrelle Willis – I just wanted to talk about him and how awesome he was for the Marlins. He was synonymous with the team in the 2000s winning a World Series, ROY, and finishing 2nd in Cy Young votes in 2005. The second he fell off though, they shipped him out in the Miguel Cabrera trade. They were right to, he was never good again. Still sucks that 5 years seems like the absolute max for this team.
• SP4: Pablo Lopez – As soon as he left Miami, Lopez would be an All-Star and finish 7th in Cy Young voting. He has been a modern work horse for the Twins, pitching 440 innings in 2.5 years and is currently in the midst of his best season with a 2.82 ERA in 11 starts.
• SP5: Mark Buehrle – Coming to Miami after a new ballpark spending spree that lasted only a few months, Buehrle was traded to Toronto following 1 solid season in an all-time salary dump trade. Buehrle, Jose Reyes, and Josh Johnson were traded to Toronto for Henderson Alvarez before he fell off the edge of the earth and Yunel Escobar who would never play for the Marlins. He still managed 3 more solid seasons of mid 3s ERA and 200 innings each year before retiring.
• Bullpen: Andrew Miller – Part of the return for Miggy Cabrera, Miller never figured it out as a starter in Miami, but broke out big as maybe the best reliever on the planet for the Yankees and Indians, garnering Cy Young votes for both teams.

Episode 15: The Phillies are BACK (for now) Edition