Loria confirms offer, Samson denies

The Miami Marlins’ anticipated 11.11.11 unveiling has come and passed. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria stood at the podium Friday night and made sure that people in the audience and watching on Marlins.com that they are no longer the Florida Marlins. That team does not exist, even going as far as throwing a now old Marlins hat. He put much emphasis on the “Miami” Marlins, drilling it into people’s brain. In a somewhat unorthodox move, the new primary home jersey will have “Miami” across the front. Normally, home teams have their team nicknames instead of the city they are from; this goes with the theme of how different the Miami Marlins want to be from this point forward.

The event came and went without any surprises. The biggest news of the night came after the event ended, when interviews took place.

When being interviewed by local sports writer for the Palm Beach Post Joe Capozzi, Loria spoke candidly about reports that surfaced earlier in the day that the Marlins have made offers to free agents José Reyes, Albert Pujols and Mark Buehrle.

“We made offers, but I’m not going to discuss them,” Loria said.  The shockingly blunt news from Loria didn’t last long before Marlins President David Samson chimed in and rained on Loria’s parade.

“No offers have been made that we can comment on,” Samson said. “There is no comment.”

Samson did cite baseball rules as the reason as they could not comment. But the damage was done. Despite Samson’s firmness, he could not take away what Loria had said.

If the Marlins get all three free agents or none of them, one thing is for sure; the city of Miami will have a bigger buzz than usual during the upcoming fall and winter months. That buzz will lurk until all the free agents have put pen to the paper and a wearing a new uniform. However, it is yet to be seen if those new uniforms will have “Miami” across the chest.