Miami Marlins: Owner Jeffery Loria Does It Again

Jul 31, 2011; Atlanta, GA, USA; Florida Marlins starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco (47) looks for a signal from his catcher against the Atlanta Braves during the third inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Josh D. Weiss-USA TODAY Sports

Last night, the Marlins traded their all-time wins leader, Ricky Nolasco, to Dodgers for three minor league prospects. This trade was more than expected, as Ricky Nolasco is the highest paid player on the Marlins team this year. Nolasco was also having a pretty descent year which really enhanced his trade value, supposedly.

Well just don’t tell that to Jeffrey Loria.

The man who constantly seems to try to make the team bad decided to trade Ricky Nolasco for, at best, two relievers and lower tier starter pitcher.

Wow, just Wow.

It was reported that the Rockies had an offer on the table that included two pretty descent prospects in return for Nolasco. They could have been very good high upside pitcher, like Tyler Matzek, and lower tier catching prospect who has descent upside like Tom Murphy. These prospects are not exactly top prospects but they have the potential to be good producers in the Majors. All that was needed to get these players was Loria agreeing to pay the rest of Nolasco’s salary for the season.

What did he do of course?

He went with the Dodgers offer of paying all of Nolasco’s salary and giving Loria some low prospects. John Wall, Angel Sanchez, and Steven Ames are descent pitchers but unfortunately they don’t have a lot of upside. John Wall had to be demoted from the Majors this year because of his outrageous 12.08 ERA. Ames has done alright in Triple-A but he is not more than a set-up man in the Majors. Sanchez, is currently in Single A and he is not dominating nor is he pitching to well at the moment. All of these players could eventually help the Marlins, hell maybe even this season, but they really don’t have the kind of potential to make a major impact for the team.

The Rockies could have provided that.

Loria went with a safer trade to get rid of money responsibilities instead of a risk/reward scenario for Nolasco’s salary. However I don’t think the current trade for Nolasco was ok’ed because this players were going to have some sort of impact in the future. I think its only because Loria just wanted to dump salary and get some players just to save face.

So what’s next?

Well the Marlins are probably going to trade one or more of their relievers like Mike Dunn, Steve Cishek, and Ryan Webb. Since teams always need relievers for the postseason these are going to be high priced players. Also they don’t make a lot of money so Loria won’t be able to just dump some extra cash. These three players, especially Cishek, could command some pretty good prospects. I don’t want the Marlins to trade Cishek but I expect it since this year Cishek is up for arbitration. The Marlins are probably going to trade Cishek just so they don’t have to pay him this year. What’s probably going to happen though is that we won’t the get top prospects because of Loria’s amazing ability to destroy.

So whatever the case, Jeffrey Loria, you have done it again.