Marlins stay idle at Winter Meetings

All of the MLB managers and executives have been sent home from Nashville, all of the deal are done, and all of the madness is offically over, the 2015 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings have come to a close with the Marlins making a grand total of zero trades. Having been hooked into many big trade rumors, the Marlins did not complete a trade and limited their signings to only minor league depth signings leaving all but empty handed from this year’s winter meetings.

The huge rumor with the Marlins for the winter meetings was their aggressive shopping of Jose Fernandez. Fernandez, pegged as the team’s ace of the future came into trade rumors before the meetings and those rumors only intensified as the meetings rolled on. With the Yankees, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks all potential suitors, the Marlins pulled the 23 year-old right-hander from the trade market Wednesday night.

The only other major Marlin involved in trade rumors heading into this week was embattled outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna has fallen from grace within the organization and the Marlins began to aggressively shop him before and during the winter meetings. Wanting a young starter in return, no team was willing to pay the price for the enigmatic and inconstant slugger and  Ozuna is still on the Miami roster as of Thursday night.

Closing pitcher A.J. Ramos also came up a few rumors but nothing materialized and Ramos looks like he will remain with the Marlins for the 2015 season.

With no deal made this week, the Marlins will look to either sign or trade for starting and relief pitching in the coming days. With several of the high profile starters pulled off the market, it looks like the Fish will be shopping on the clearance racks for the rest of free agency. Several potential Marlins targets are still unsigned, and the team has enough bait to work a deal with most teams in the MLB. The question will be, will the Marlins open up their checkbook for free agents, or will they be able to come down on their prices to work a trade.