The Miami Marlins continued their busy offseason by officially trading Chris Volstad for Carlos Zambrano and $15.5MM of his $18MM salary today. Here's some more from baseball's first Florida team…
- President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said new manager Ozzie Guillen "was a major force" in the Zambrano trade, reports Clark Spencer of The Miami Herald (on Twitter). Guillen and Zambrano are friends and countrymen.
- “We really liked him when we saw him at that workout [in November],” said Beinfest to Mike Bernardino of The Sun Sentinel, referring to Yoenis Cespedes. “It’s something we’re continuing to monitor, and we’ll kind of leave it there. But we were very impressed. Obviously, as a Cuban we think it would be an interesting fit in this market and on this ballclub. It’s something we continue to monitor and stay up on.”
- Bernardino says teams will submit a sealed bid for Cespedes to his agent Adam Katz through MLB, then have an opportunity to increase their offers. It's unclear if this is an official process, or just how Katz will attempt to find a suitor for the outfielder.
- Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald says (on Twitter) that the Marlins will withdraw from the Cespedes derby if his price tag exceeds $60MM.
