Miami Marlins and their Public Relations Firm

Oct 7, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez (13) is congratulated by second baseman Dee Gordon (9) after scoring a run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 6th inning during game four of the 2014 NLDS baseball playoff game at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Step one: Rewrite the history of the 2012 season, to begin the reshaping of the image.

The Miami Marlins were 45-53 on July 26th, 2012, the day the team shipped out Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time of the trade, the Marlins were 9 games back of the Pittsburgh Pirates for a wild card spot in the National League.

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While the team was certainly not headed in the right direction at the time, they were a better team than the one that ended the season with 69 wins. If the front office kept the core together, there is a good chance the Marlins end up winning between 75 and 80 games that season. Not playoff caliber, but certainly not a 69 win team.

The Marlins argument after the 2013 season for 2012 was that “we won nearly the same amount of games as we did with a higher payroll in 2012.” They tend to leave out the part that they sold pieces off that made the team a 69 win team, instead of the mediocre team they actually were.

No, mediocrity was not going to be the best answer for the Marlins going forward and I maintain the Marlins made the smart baseball decision by ridding of the contracts that could have hampered their ability to contend. But the argument that the 2013 team was almost as good as the 2012 team is a farce. The talent on those two teams are not even comparable.

Next: Larry Beinfest, the scapegoat

Feb 12, 2013; Jupiter, FL, USA; Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest (center) is seen in a golf cart during spring training at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Step 2: Find the Scapegoat

The now highly praised trade, which we’ll get into later, was the doing of one Larry Beinfest. The same guy the Marlins fired after their 100-loss 2013 season. He was the man in charge of that trade, as well as the Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez trades made during the 2012 season.

On September 27th, 2013, the Marlins parted ways with Beinfest, who had been with the team since Loria bought the team in 2002. His 11-year tenure featured one World Series Championship, though most of the roster for that Championship was already in place when he took over the overseeing of the club, and a bunch of failed first round draft picks.

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When firing Beinfest, the Marlins could have shown they were tired of the same front office making the same mistakes 0over and over, except they didn’t. The team fired Beinfest and then changed the structure of the front office, promoting the guys that had worked directly underneath Beinfest. This was as if to say that Beinfest was the sole person responsible for the Marlins shortcomings, not the owner, not the president, nor the assistant GM’s.

Beinfest became the instant scapegoat for the Marlins franchise when the times got rough, but gets no credit today when discussing the core of the Miami Marlins. Though Beinfest had plenty of empty first round picks, he was in charge of the ballclub when Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Jose Fernandez were drafted. He was also in charge when Marcell Ozuna signed over from the Dominican Republic and was a little known prospect at 17-years old.

Catcher of the future J.T. Realmuto and Tom Koehler, the feel good story after being picked in the 22nd round, were both drafted in the Larry Beinfest ERA. Henderson Alvarez, Adeiny Hechavarria, and one of this team’s current top prospects, Justin Nicolino, were all brought in by Beinfest in that aforementioned Jays trade. Steve Cishek was another hidden gem uncovered by Beinfest.

So to count: the best starting outfield in baseball, 3/5’s of the team’s projected rotation, their closer, and several of the team’s top prospects were brought into the organization by Beinfest. And if we want to use the method Frisaro used in his post to talk about how the Jays trade benefited the Marlins in other trades, we’d spend another 500-750 words on the players the current front office traded this off-season that Beinfest brought in, to acquire the upgrades they added.

So while the Marlins paint the picture that the current front office has done a great job of assembling a potential contender, we forget that the main core of that team was brushed together by the team’s scapegoat, one Larry Beinfest.

Next: The infamous trade

Sep 28, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez (37) throws during the second inning inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Step 3: Take the Net Negative and Turn it into a Positive

Finally, we get to talk about the infamous fire sale trade itself. While the Marlins have sold the perspective that this trade was a major win for the Marlins, it’s not entirely true.

First all of all, the Marlins acquired a guy in Alvarez that posted a 4.85 ERA and a 5.18 FIP. He struck out just 78 hitters in 178 innings of work. While his game seemed like a better fit in Miami, there’s no way the Marlins saw the pitcher they got in 2014 at the time. Saying so would be an utter lie. The same holds true for Anthony DeSclafani, who the Marlins regarded as nothing more than a throw in at the time of the deal.

Also, the team got two backend top 100 prospects in Justin Nicolino and Jake Marisnick. Had they been willing to kick some money in for the contracts they shipped out, they’d likely been able to get a better prospect package. Can you imagine Noah Syndergaard, the top pitching prospect the Mets received for R.A. Dickey, waiting in the minors to pitch for the big league team? We wouldn’t be having any discussions about potentially needing a fifth starter.

On top of that, Michael Jong of Fishstripes took a look at the net WAR totals that were apart of the 2012 Jays-Marlins trade. Guess what, the Marlins don’t come out on top.

WAR Totals However, just for the record, if you wanted to check out how those players did, we can always tally Wins Above Replacement totals for the last two years. BLUE JAYS, 2013 FWAR RWAR AVG WAR SALARY ($MIL) Jose Reyes 6.5 5.4 6.0 23.0 Josh Johnson 0.5 -1.6 -0.6 11.3 Mark Buehrle 6.2 5.7 6.0 26.0 Emilio Bonifacio -0.4 0.1 -0.1 2.0 Total 12.8 9.6 11.3 62.3 The Jays essentially paid market value for those wins, but most of their losses came from Josh Johnson’s bad 2013. Without Johnson’s struggles, the Jays actually come out just fine, with two players playing at least up to their contract values. MARLINS, 2013 FWAR RWAR AVG WAR SALARY ($MIL) Henderson Alvarez 4.1 6.5 5.3 1.0 Adeiny Hechavarria -1.3 -1.1 -1.2 4.9 Jeff Mathis -0.4 0.0 -0.2 3 Derek Dietrich 0.3 -0.3 0.0 0.8 Jake Marisnick -0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 Anthony DeSclafani 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 Former player salaries — — — 8.5 Total 2.6 5.3 4.0 18.5

In the last two years, the only net positive WAR player for the Marlins in that trade has been Henderson Alvarez. Other than that, the Marlins haven’t gotten great production from the other players. But to be fair, it’s harder to judge prospects in this way.

Those numbers also further drive home the point that the Marlins have gotten more out of their core players than any player associated with the Jays trade. The majority of the core was once again put together by Beinfest, as was this trade.

Next: Conclusion?

Nov 19, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; The jumbotron shows a photo of Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton after a press conference at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The best move the Miami Marlins front office may ever make was their decision to hire The Jeffery Group to be their Public Relations people. The Jeffery Group has taken the Marlins reputation that was shot and turned it around in just about two years.

Because of that group, the team was able to sign Giancarlo Stanton and slowly change their perception to the outside media.

If the Marlins can next get their core players signed to extensions, including Christian Yelich and Jose Fernandez, the team will only brighten the bright future they already have. The team has come a long way since the Blue Jays trade that all but killed their reputation.

Unfortunately, one more misstep from Loria, like 2012, and not even the Jeffery Group would be able to save them.

The Jeffery Group is the real MVP’s and deserve a Stanton-esque extension soon.