A Case for the Miami Marlins Going After Jose Abreu?

Jul 28, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes (52) hits a two-run double against the Los Angeles Angels in the sixth inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Cuba has always produced high-end talent for Major League Baseball. The Cuban citizens eat, live, and breath baseball. For some, it’s the only way to leave the country for freer shores. In recent years, the players coming out of the island have been game changers.

Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, Aroldis Chapman, and even our ace Jose Fernandez defected from Cuba and made their way onto American baseball diamonds.

All of those players have not only made their respective teams better, but they have become stars that many players aim to be like. These players were heavily scouted, highly touted, and ready for the show. Now every team wants to find the next superstar from the Caribbean island. The Marlins tried to get Yoenis Cespedes a few years ago, but lost out to Billy Beane and his Oakland A’s. We have all seen how good Cespedes has been early on in his career.

But what if there is a new player that has better offensive potential than Cespedes and the Marlins had a good shot of getting him?

Cuban slugger Jose Abreu, the cuban star from the most recent World Baseball classic, just defected from his homeland and is currently in Haiti. He is considered one of the best hitting prospects in the world. He hit .453 with 33 home runs and 93 RBI’s in 66 games during the 2010-11 season. (He also hit .360 during the 2013 World Baseball Classic).

That’s pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

According to Jim Bowden, the Marlins are considered the front-runners to acquire this potentially game changing slugger.

Teams have been scouting him for years and it is universally believed that he will be very successful once he signs with a team.

However if the Marlins want any chance of getting this slugger, they are going to need to go all in for him, which means giving him quite a large contract. It begs the question though: Is he worth 54 million dollars over six years?

Very few players are worth that kind of money and since he has never even played a minor league game, but signing Abreu would mean more than just getting a talented first baseman.

If the Marlins are able to sign this player it could mean three major things for the ball-club:

1. They would be getting a potential offensive juggernaut that could be inserted in the middle of the lineup with Giancarlo Stanton and Logan Morrison.
2. There could possibly be more fan support from the Miami Cubans since the team is heavily investing in players from Cuba.
3. The Marlins start winning fan support from all over Miami because Jeffrey Loria is not cutting payroll just to make a quick buck. It tell us, the fans, that he wants to create a World Series winning team and with the excellent farm system, the team would be set for the foreseeable future.

There are definitely some risks in spending that much money on a prospect, but the potential reward outweighs the risk. The Marlins would be loading up for a potential playoff run, they would be gaining much needed fan support, and this website can finally talk about Jeffrey Loria in a positive light.

Its a win win for everyone.

This November could dictate the future of the Marlins as a Franchise for the next couple of years. Stanton has to choose whether to sign the massive contract there going to offer him or be traded. The Marlins may get involved in a bidding war for this stud of a player.

This season may have been a disappointment but even without the news of the Marlins acquiring a potential superstar, the future was shining bright. Lets just hope we can stay on the right course and maybe win a World Series.