Thanks in part to revenue sharing, the Marlins remain profitable, and Jeffrey Loria’s fellow owners might take issue with his indecisive and costly approach to building a team, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes. The Marlins are now paying two former managers who are still under contract (Mike Redmond and Ozzie Guillen), plus former executives Larry Beinfest and Jim Fleming. They’re also paying former catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia through next season. Meanwhile, their attendance remains poor despite the recent opening of Marlins Park. Here’s more from throughout the game.
- Redmond’s firing demonstrates the Marlins’ inability to follow a steady course, Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports writes. The manager the Marlins hire tomorrow will be their eighth in the last decade, the others being Jack McKeon, Joe Girardi, Fredi Gonzalez, Edwin Rodriguez, McKeon again, Guillen and Redmond.
- Montreal mayor Denis Coderre will meet with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on May 28, and he plans to convey to Manfred the city’s love for baseball, the Associated Press reports. Montreal, of course, hasn’t had a team since the Expos were moved to Washington following the 2004 season. Coderre would like for big-league baseball to return, but it sounds like he expects it will be awhile before that can happen. “I don’t want to negotiate openly, but we’ll clearly talk about Montreal,” he says. “We need a step-by-step approach. You don’t pull the flower to make it grow faster.”
- The Greenville Drive, the Red Sox’ Class A affiliate, have announced that Yoan Moncada will make his professional debut Monday night, playing second base. The 19-year-old Cuban phenom had been in extended spring training. Red Sox fans will surely be paying close attention to tomorrow’s box score, hoping for hints as to what to expect from Moncada, who officially signed for a $31.5MM bonus in mid-March.
- Josh Hamilton hasn’t yet joined the Rangers, but he’s happy to be back in the Dallas area on a rehab assignment with Double-A Frisco, Ryan Gerbosi of the Dallas Morning News writes. “It’s been a good reception,” says Hamilton. “It’s been good to hear a little twang in people’s voices and just go out there and it’s just a good feeling.” Hamilton, who has also played a handful of games for Triple-A Round Rock, doubled today in his second game with the RoughRiders and appears close to a return from his shoulder injury.
- 19-year-old lefty Cionel Perez has left Cuba in search of a deal with a big-league team, but MLB’s registration rules will be an obstacle, Ben Badler of Baseball America writes. (Perez’s departure from Cuba was originally reported by MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez.) Badler notes that Perez isn’t a top-tier prospect, but he has improved his standing lately and had become one of the better pitchers in Cuba before his departure. (Badler notes in a subscriber-only scouting report that Perez is small, at 5-foot-10, but has added velocity lately and is now throwing in the low 90s.) Because Perez was born after September 1, 1995, though, and has not yet registered with the commissioner’s office, he will not be eligible to sign until the international signing period that begins next July. Once he’s eligible, he will be subject to rules regarding international bonus pools.
Force Loria to either sell the team or move it to Montreal. Problem solved.
Montreal is no better. They only care about hockey. Baseball has tried and failed there already.
Baseball failed in Montreal because they had the wrong ownership group.They refused to spend money and so all the talent left as soon as it was eligible.That is no different than what has been going on in Miami.Loria apparently fires his manager every time he gets a bad haircut or his hat falls off whichever happens first.
In a just world the Marlins would be moved to Montreal, and the Rays would be allowed to move to Miami. Loria would be banned from baseball longer than Pete Rose.
I can’t wait for people to start calling Moncada overrated when he doesn’t hit 18 home runs tomorrow
Realistically, most Boston prospects are over-rated. Media hype is the best weapon that franchise has. And Boston overpaying for Moncada as insanely as they did doesn’t help. You’re right, the expectations are going to be very high and that’s not unfair considering the hype and the money. And in typical RSN style, it will take about a week for them to turn on him.
To be fair, they weren’t the only team willing to pay nearly that much for Moncada – The Yankees were willing to pay 27 million and the Dodgers would pay 32 million also if Moncada had waited until July 2 to sign.
Yes. I believe the Padres made a big bid too.
Yeah, the point is that many prospects do bust, but you don’t get elite pplayers into your sytem unless you’re wiling to take risks. I don’t think Boston’s prospects are more “over-hyped” than any other team’s; I would bet the bust rate of top prospects is pretty similar for most teams if you were to look at it historically.
I would LOVE to see Baseball return to the great city of Montreal
So would the 5000 people per game that would attend
There’s a reason baseball left Montreal to begin with. Even the Rays draw 3x-4x what the Expos drew their last few seasons. So you get a bump the first couple years when its all new and tres exciting. Then it will be the Expos moving back to wherever they came from or Charlotte or some other place. What’s the point?
The Expos hadn’t made the playoffs since 1981 at that point and hadn’t been in a pennant race since 1994 in which they lost the season due to a lockout. The 4 consecutive sellouts for the past two pre-seasons played at Olympic stadium alone would draw 10 percent of what the Rays reportedly draw over an entire season over the past few years.
Unless you’re a Cubs fan(no offense I love you guys) you’re not going to support a constant loser, look at the Yankees attendance in the early 90’s when the Jays were the powerhouse of the division. Yankees were struggling to get people to the games. Something unfathomable in todays game.
1991 Yankees Attendance: 21,589 Per game 1,748,737 total.
4 consecutive sellouts….yes, because there were only 4 games. Sure, people are excited and “love” baseball when there are only 4 games. Try 81…not so much love anymore.
4 weekend games no less. its a little different on a tuesday night in august
Yeah, pretty sure Tampa has trouble selling out games in August in the middle of pennant races. Why don’t you look at their attendance from 1998 until now? If you look at this season alone they’ve only eclipsed 30,000 once and are averaging a hilarious 15,249 per game.
I wonder if people said the same thing about The Pirates attendance prior to 2013? Or the Padres attendance prior to this year? Poor clubs don’t draw fans this isn’t news.
Expos had a bad ownership group and their stadium was, literally, falling apart. Baseball is in a much better shape league-wide than it was when the Expos were moved. I think Montreal would be able to easily support a major league team today.
It’s been almost 20 years since we’ve had expansion…