Peter Gammons Says Marlins May Not Be Far From Playoffs

Sep 29, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins vice president

In Peter Gammons column, DailyGammons, He discusses the rebuilding process that many teams in Major League Baseball face and the lack of patience that often accompanies those processes. He makes a point that it usually takes 5 years to go from rock bottom, to a playoff contender. He points to the Atlanta Braves who took 5 years in the 80’s when Bobby Cox took over, and for a modern example, looks to the Pittsburgh Pirates who took 6 years.

In an interesting segment of his column, he discusses the Marlins and claims they may not be far away.

"One team that could reboot in a hurry is Miami, if Jeffrey Loria will allow Dan Jennings and Mike Hill to make the kind of decisions he stopped allowing Larry Beinfest to make so capably for so many years. Loria gave Jennings the wherewithal to invest the capital to hire two-highly respected professional scouting directors in Jeff McAvoy, who was an assistant to Andrew Friedman in Tampa, and Billy Beane’s longtime ally Craig Weissman, and do not be surprised if Jennings makes additions to his amateur scouting operation ."

He even lays out a blueprint for how Miami can get there quickly:

"Jennings inherits the fruits of Beinfest’s labors. They have terrific young pitching with Jose Fernandez, Nathan Eovaldi, Henderson Alvarez, Jacob Turner and a premium closer in Steve Cishek. It is probably a pipe dream to sign Giancarlo Stanton longterm, but with Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, Colin Moran, et al, the position players are good enough to be carried into contention by the pitching, even if Stanton leaves. And say the Rangers would part with a package with an infielder (Jurickson Profar or 2B Rougned Odor), slugger Joey Gallo and a couple of arms from their never-ending pool (Luke Jackson? Others?), they could move on for five years while Stanton hits 60 home runs in Arlington."

I completely agree with Gammons on this. While I love watching Stanton obliterate baseballs, I care more about playoffs and ultimately World Series Championships. Miami has outfield depth and if they can get a few more pieces in a Stanton trade, it would position themselves perfectly in 2 years.

I don’t like to keep hitting the reset button during rebuilds, but if Stanton won’t sign an extension this year, I would grant him his wish and move him somewhere else. There is no point in rebuilding only halfway, and Stanton may never even achieve his full potential. What do you think about a Stanton trade?

For Gammons entire article, which is phenomenal as always, click here.