Miami Marlins History: Splash Free January

Without question, the last couple months have been light in terms of breaking news when it comes to the Miami Marlins.  And if history is to be any judge, fans just might want to buckle up for a relatively splash free January.  Once the games get underway in 2016, fans will be seeing a weekly (at minimum) feature on Marlin Maniac citing memorable moments in team history that occurred on those dates.  The original idea for this article was to get the ball rolling in that respect with notable transactions that occurred in previous first weeks of January, because surely there must have been many.

Copious and painstaking research (otherwise known as coffee-aided-pointless-reading) revealed….four.  And two of those of deals, swaps of forgettable prospects for forgettable prospects with the Reds and Rockies respectively, don’t even merit in-depth discussion.  A similar sweep of the entire month of January scarcely turned up much more to get excited about, although two future first ballot Hall of Famers did join up with the club in the year’s opening frame.  With that being the case, and considering there isn’t really anything else worth discussing (aside from why every Florida Panthers game in Sunrise isn’t a sellout yet), let’s take a took at the list, and reflect on the most significant deal/signing that transpired.

• January 5th, 2012: Chris Volstad traded for Carlos Zambrano.
• January 8th, 2003: Marlins sign Todd Hollandsworth.
• January 11th, 2003: Trio of prospects dealt for Mark Redman.
• January 13th, 1996: Marlins sign Livan Hernandez
• January 13th, 2011: Marlins invite Tom Koehler to Spring Training.
• January 27th, 2015: Marlins sign Ichiro Suzuki.
• January 28th, 2003: Marlins sign Ivan Rodriguez.

Those would be the highlights.  Personally, it seems hard to argue with Pudge standing out as the best January move, as he makes the shortlist of best free agent signings in team history.  Certainly the 2003 title squad received a big boost from January dealings.  On the other hand, the 1997 World Series MVP was acquired in a January deal as well- no qualms from this author if you tap El Nino as the winner here either.  But what do you think Fish Nation?  Cast your vote below.