The Miami Marlins disarm
Fans of the Miami Marlins baseball team (formerly Marlins of Florida) believed that following the purchase of the franchise by a group captained by former New York Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter, in a transaction valued at 1200 million dollars, the failures of the set would end up disappearing. And is that after winning the World Series of the year 2003, at that time based in Florida, have never been closer to star charts. On the contrary, they have become a sotanero and loser team, image that aspire to change the new managers.
The board has launched a large-scale plan to raise more capital and have a broader financial cushion in the future of the organization. Known as "Citrus Project," the strategy was delineated in an email to potential investors in the "fish" that could add between $ 175 and $ 250 million, according to several press reports, however, a series of movements in the market. Winter has left Jeter and company unwell.
Over the course of a week, the Marlins switched middleman Dee Gordon to the Seattle Mariners, superstar Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees and top-ranked outfielder Marcell Ozuna to the St. Louis Cardinals. They also licensed Dominican pitcher Edinson Volquez and are immersed in conversations with several teams to try to move outfielder Christian Yelich, one of the figures with the highest growth prospects. While some experts call it a mandatory reconstruction, fans believe that the management so far leaves much to be desired.
When the group led by Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter bought the Marlins, it was learned that their first goal was to reduce the payroll from $ 115 million to about $ 90 million by 2018 as part of a strategy to control spending at the beginning of the new management. To meet that goal, Miami would have to get rid of around $ 50 million dollars. When they released Stanton, they saved $ 265 million for the next decade, including $ 25 million in 2018. Gordon will enter $ 10.8 million next season (which the Mariners will have to pay), while Ozuna, who earned $ 3.5 million this year, he must have a notable increase in his salary, which will be taken over by the Cardinals' franchise.
In those tasks, the star recruitment for the Marlins was the Dominican "waiter" Starlin Castro, from the "Bombers of the Bronx", who will earn about $ 24 million in the next two years, in addition to nine prospects. When firing the thrower Edinson Vólquez, who recovers from an operation "Tommy John", the Marlins win a space in the roster of 40 players, although they will have to pay him $ 13 million. Volquez was operated last August and in the most optimistic scenario it would only reappear in the last weeks of next season. An objective look at these movements translates into a negative balance for the club to be without its main stars.
The deterioration of the situation of the Marlins has not gone unnoticed for the local fanaticada. One of the most illustrious fans, Barry Jackson, showed his dissatisfaction on social media and said that he has always supported the franchise and could be called "Marlins Man", who has held season tickets since 1993, but ruled that he has renewed for the next season and is furious with the possibility of paying the prices of the big leagues "to see a Triple A team".
By the way, this December 19, Derek Jeter showed up at Marlins Park to satisfy the doubts of the fans who gathered there. The meeting was not as enjoyable as he expected, the fans were quite incisive in their questions. "I want people to understand that this is not a period of change for change, to change to break again," Jeter explained. "We make the changes to win short and long term. To build a first class organization, "he concluded. The questions focused, above all, on the departure of popular players, something that the fans will not see with good eyes until the emerging project of the new board begins to achieve good results.
