Miami Marlins and their Public Relations Firm

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