Yeah Jeets Yeah Jeets!
By 
This offseason’s news about the Marlins has reasonably been focused on the steady hum of Giancarlo Stanton trade gossip. Today’s Dee Gordon deal, though, temporarily stole back a bit of the spotlight. The push to move Stanton is but one piece of a larger salary-shedding effort that includes the Gordon trade, and that salary-shedding effort is but one revolution on the wretched merry-go-round of this franchise.
And it’s something that the Marlins have done again and again. The team just just celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, but they’ve looped through the cycle of burn-and-build more frequently and more intensely than anyone else in recent history. They’ve passed through the hands of one hated owner to another to what might now be another. They were ripped down after the 1997 World Series title, the roster stripped so ruthlessly that the 1998 team lost 108 games; they were ripped down after the 2003 World Series title, with the 2005 winter politely and hollowly deemed an offseason for “market correction” by management; they were ripped down in 2012, because Jeffrey Loria wanted it so. Now, they’ll be dismantled again, insofar as that’s possible for a team that’s had a losing record for eight straight seasons.
This has reached its logical culmination, with the best player in franchise history being traded for pennies on the dollar:
While the Yankees aren’t expected to finalize their acquisition of Marlins’ outfielder Giancarlo Stanton until later this weekend, the terms of the deal have been reported. The Marlins will receive veteran outfielder Starlin Castro, minor league right-hander Jorge Guzman and infielder Jose Devers in exchange for Stanton and approximately $30 million. Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the $30 million will only be paid out in full if Stanton elects not to opt out after the 2020 season. The Yankees will absorb the remaining $265 million left on his contract.
With the price break the Yankees are getting in the deal, MLB Network’s Jon Morosireports that it’s likely they’ll be able to avoid going over the luxury tax threshold in 2018. After offloading Castro’s $7.57 million salary and taking into account the $25 million Stanton is due next season, the club is looking at a payroll increase of just under $17.5 million. Morosi adds that the $30 million the Yankees receive from Miami will be paid out in $3 million installments to help offset the luxury tax restrictions each year.
As for the Marlins, they’ll come away from the trade with just one top-10 Yankees prospect: right-hander Jorge Guzman, who was ranked no. 9 by MLBPipeline.com in 2017 and is expected to break into the big leagues as soon as 2019. The 21-year-old pitched exclusively out of the rotation for Low-A Staten Island last season, impressing with a 5-3 record in 13 starts and a 2.30 ERA, 2.4 BB/9 and 11.9 SO/9 through 66 2/3 innings.
This is disgusting, but the Yankees aren’t the primary villains here. The Marlins are owned by extremely rich people who bought a franchise that extorted Miami taxpayers for a fancy new stadium. That it was entirely predictable that Miami ownership would consistently take this windfall to stuff money into their own pockets rather than invest in the team doesn’t make it any less appalling. Bruce Sherman, Derek Jeter and the rest of the ownership group are all greedy scumbags just like their cartoonishly evil predecessor, the end.
In other baseball news being a Mariners fan is abjectly horrible and nobody should ever do it ever.