Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest spoke with reporters yesterday; here are the hot stove highlights.
- The Marlins will raise their payroll to at least $85MM in 2012, writes Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. By my calculations they should have over $20MM to spend on '12 salaries, if Juan Carlos Oviedo does not remain with the team.
- Oviedo, the former Leo Nunez, is in the Dominican Republic working through identity-related legal issues. Beinfest hopes for clarity on the situation as soon as possible, but has "contingencies in place." Beinfest noted that there are dates that are sensitive to Oviedo's situation, namely the December 12th non-tender deadline.
- Beinfest told reporters the Marlins' top priority is to add rotation depth. In regard to Javier Vazquez, he said, "I haven't talked with Javy since the season ended. What a great job he did for us, and we will check in with him and his agent. We'll see where his head is, and where his thoughts are. That door was left open when the season ended to at least explore. Javy's mind is wherever Javy's mind is. He's a veteran guy. We'll at least explore and keep and touch, and we'll see."
- Beinfest seems more open to trading young players, saying, "I think we need to become a little more open, just in general. I think we've been very protective of our zero to three [years of experience] players because we've had to be, given our payroll challenges. I think we can open up a little more now."
- This is an important offseason for center fielder Chris Coghlan, says Beinfest, after two disappointing seasons.
- To read my offseason outlook for the new Miami Marlins, click here.
McCourt agreeing to sell, the Marlins raising payroll, the Pirates contending for a portion of a season (beyond the first week)…hell truly has frozen over.
I wouldn’t say “Hell has frozen over,” but rather, “Thank goodness, because baseball just got that much better.” I love that all these exciting things are happening. Everyone secretly roots for the Pirates to get out of their basement-dwelling slump… Or am I alone in that?
I fully agree with you sir, especially the part about loving seeing the Pirates start to compete.
Thats not enough to sign Pujols
[chirp, chirp]
Helllooo. Anyone here? Where’d all the Marlins fans go?
[chirp, chirp]
Good question
These is nothing to say because this is nothing new…
No way Pujols goes to any of these teams have a possibility of making the playoffs. Sure Pujols will want his money but he wants the money for a championship-caliber team. That means I would eliminate the Cubs, Marlins, and any other team that not only needs a bat but also need various other big pieces to fill out the team.
All of the Pujols stuff and the Marlins came from a couple stupid comments. When people asked the FO of the Marlins about signing him they said “you have to at least try.” Then a while ago they asked Pujols about Miami and he said he likes the area. There is a what, 1% chance he signs here? And thats being generous. As much as i would love to have him – they could do nothing else but add him. We need SP,RP, CF, 3B…so yeah.
crazy thing is many places are saying the Marlins are the landing spot for K-Rod, Edwin jackson, Sizemore, and Reyes. Even if that did happen, still leaves the starting staff exposed. Anibal Sanchez is a legit number three who can pitch like an ace sometimes – JJ when healthy is one of the elite aces. Nolasco is the biggest underachiever ever, Volstad is a waste of height, and the once good looking West and Sanabia dont look so great. And Edwin Jackson is also a big underachiever. The only hope to getting Reyes is i think the team loves the idea off H2R not being at SS anymore, and him going to 3B solves our third problem for a while – then we can see Dominguez (who would want him though….all glove.)
Vasquez had a crazy season last year. The first half was probably the worst he had pitched in his career and the second finished amazingly.
I agree with you