Miami Marlins Trade For Dan Straily: Three Key Questions

Do You Believe In This Club? 

Clearly, the front office does. Some rumors have them not even done tinkering with this roster. The offense could be great- they sported the fourth best average in the majors last year. The bullpen is impressive. The starting rotation….okay, serious liability. But the team has added three new starters to the competition, and the depth is at least improved.

Partly, this could be about being as good as possible in a season set to showcase Marlins Park as the home All-Star Game. Not a bad idea at that- being a winning team in 2017 would likely mean more to the organization than being a winning team in 2018 or 2019. Quietly, the payroll for a Marlins team is well over the $100 million mark, which is a lot for this market. My preference would have been to pay Hammel, to give C.J. Wilson a shot, to spend rather than trade. But for the first time since 2012, I feel a little bad telling Jeffrey Loria he isn’t spending enough.

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This is the one that it really comes down to. If you believe this team can make the playoffs, even just make it, you probably need to give them a pass on this. Save your anger for when Desclafani makes the All-Star team, or Andrew Heaney is a playoff MVP for the Angels. Or even for when Straily gets hurt in May, and we have nothing to trade with in July.

My verdict? I believe this team will be in it right to the end again. I’m just not convinced Dan Straily will have anything to do with it.