Time to Sell?!
With the MLB Trading Deadline today at 6 P.M, one could easily assume that our Title above ⬆️ only refers to Transactions of Players as it pertains to our Marlins. After all, the Fish should be Sellers before 6 O'clock to try and build a better future for 2023 & beyond.
The Marlins should use today to try and improve one of the weakest Offenses in Franchise History, one that can simply not keep pace with their very Talented Pitching Staff, 5 years and counting. So excuse us when we say we've seen this 'Fish Tale' before. The Club desperately needs Bats! The same way they desperately needed Offense in 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
No Marlins Team had fewer Base Hits in a Full Major League Season than the 2021 Marlins. No Squad in Franchise History had fewer Triples than all of the 18 the 2019 Fish put up over 162 in route to losing 105 Games. The 2018 Marlins Stole 45 Bases all year. 45! By comparison, the 2020 Marlins Swiped 51 in the 60 Game Season 😬.
The '18 Fish also Scored the 2nd fewest Runs over a Full Year in Marlins History. Only surpassing the 2013 Club, which we mentioned had quite a bit in common Offensively with the Current Marlins 🙈.
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Developing Offensive weapons has been an unbelievable challenge for the Marlins since switching Ownership hands prior to 2018. The interesting part of that these days is that they may simply be done denying it. Said Senior Director of Amateur Scouting DJ Svihlik after taking Pitching with 14 of the 20 Selections of this year's Draft; "I think it's really understanding what the depth of the Draft is, what your Organization does well, where the depth in the Organization lies".
There is no denying the abundance of Pitching the Marlins have Developed since 2018. Just as there is no denying the results have plainly and simply not been there with the Big League Club either (Minimum of 95 Losses in each Full Season since '18). That of course is mostly thanks to the anemic Offenses trotted out by the Fish the last 5 years.
Svihlik is right to the extent that the Marlins have identified what they do well, and should stick with what works for them I guess? I also suppose you can always Trade such Pitching Depth to Acquire close to MLB ready Bats. But the Marlins have failed, and failed miserably in even identifying Big League ready Talent at the Plate in other Farm Systems since the winter of 2017.
- Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison.
- Chad Wallach.
- Peter O' Brien.
- Jorge Alfaro.
- Alex Jackson.
All were Traded for from other Organizations (minus Wallach who was Re-acquired off Waivers) since the start of 2018. Today, none are with the Marlins, while most of those names ⬆️ were in Opening Day Starting Lineups (Plural).
It also hasn't helped to Draft Osiris Johsnon, Will Banfield, Tristan Pompey either. In Svihlk's defense, the planning for the 2018 Draft started before the Ownership switch, though as I'm writing this the Marlins have made a Trade.
When Derek Jeter took over in October of 2017, his first hire was said to be his direct right hand man on the Marlins, Gary Denbo. The same Denbo who was responsible for most of the Studs on the bulletin ⬆️ board like our friend Peter 🇬🇧 Pratt from Locked on Marlins likes to say 😉. The same Denbo who was relieved of his duties about 4 months after Jeter's resignation this past March. His successor was another Jeter hire, the first female G.M in North American Professional Sports History, Kim Ng.
The results for Ng thus far have been just as bad, and in some cases worse than Denbo's. Jorge Soler & Avisail Garcia's Contracts are for a combined $89 Million Dollars over the next 3 to 4 Years. No chump change for a Franchise that has been seeing some all-time low Attendance figures (even by Marlins standards) since Jeter's short stay in Miami. Coupled with the production, or lack there of, from both Outfielders this Year.
The Marlins seemed to be in a very good position following their stunning Playoff appearance in 2020. Things have obviously turned for the worse since October of '20. The same month President of Baseball Operations Mike Hill was not retained. Hill was a holdover from the previous Ownership, though was said to be more of a secondary voice on the Marlins both pre and post Sale of the Franchise.
This all leads us to principle Owner Bruce Sherman, who was only given the stock of the Team because of his partnership with MLB's golden boy Jeter. Even though Sherman has always been the money man, there's no denying how much Major League Baseball thought they'd love to have the last New York Yankee 'Capitan' run (even with a very limited investment) one of their Franchises. Without Jeter, Sherman doesn't buy the Marlins and vice versa.
So I ask this, respectfully, and honestly. Should Bruce Sherman own the Marlins? The Fish seem completely lost at sea. No Owner in Marlins History had lost 95 or More Games in 3 out of 4 Years during any stretch of their Ownership (by the way the Fish seem headed for another 90 Loss Campaign this Year). Let alone they're first 4 Years!
We know Mr. Sherman, originally from New York, was a big Yankee fan. It's the reason for the teaming with Jeter to buy the Franchise and letting Jeter run it. Is it the same reason Don Mattingly is still Managing this Team? Is is the same reason every Jeter employee brought over from New York not named Gary Denbo, (but including Ng) continue to operate the Marlins straight into the ground?
I'm rooting for Bruce Sherman to turn things around here in Florida. I really hope the Marlins mean to him what they mean to so many of us down here. But again, respectfully and honestly, is he qualified to carry the Marlins out of the massive hole his Ownership Group has put them in in the first place? Or, just like during today's Trading Deadline, is it time to sell??
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