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Miami Marlins resist urge to make idiotic Dan Straily trade

By Sean Millerick |
MIAMI, FL - JULY 30: Dan Straily
MIAMI, FL - JULY 30: Dan Straily

Trade Deadline 2017 mercifully passed without the Miami Marlins ripping asunder last offseason’s best decision.

It’s August, and Dan Straily is still a member of the Miami Marlins.

That’s a bigger win than any the Fish have enjoyed this season.

Trade rumors were rampant that Straily would be on the move. Perhaps to the Brewers, perhaps to Colorado, but definitely somewhere. Off to some club that didn’t bury itself in the standings with a horrific May, or get repeatedly tripped up by injuries.

Probably would have been a decent return too. Plenty of young prospects that are in no danger of doing anything irksome like cracking a big league roster before September 2018, or earning seven figures over the next couple seasons.

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The thing is though, trading Straily would have been as selfishly stupid on the part of the Marlins front office as trading J.T. Realmuto or Giancarlo Stanton.

The reason is that Dan Straily is the Marlins dream pitcher. Well, alright, Josh Beckett and Jose Fernandez were the dream. When it comes to trades though, especially trades made with thoughts of rebuilding in mind, Straily is the gold standard teams like the Marlins look for in a starting pitcher.

MLB ready, and with multiple controllable years.

Oh, and good at the whole pitching thing. That too.

Straily is all of that. He can pitch in the rotation, and do so cheaply, right now. Sure, he’ll be arbitration eligible in 2018. That’s an incremental process though, one where it would be a couple years before he even makes Tom Koehler money.

And half the league is going to be okay paying Tom Koehler money next season for veterans who just finished putting up 2017 Tom Koehler numbers.

For the foreseeable future, Straily is a bargain.

Also, he’s way more than just another arm in the rotation. He’s currently the ace of the staff. With Edinson Volquez about to go under the knife, and Wei-Yin Chen seemingly always one pitch away from doing so, the Fish just can’t go trading away their most consistent pitcher. Not when bodies that are capable of reliably pitching five innings are in such short supply.

Straily is the type of guy the Marlins have tried to go after since 2014. Jarred Cosart, Colin Rea, take your pick. The only thing unique about Straily is that it finally worked out.

Moving Straily would have rendered a smart deal completely pointless, and robbed the hopefully forthcoming new ownership of an extremely valuable commodity.

Could I get behind trading him in December? Maybe. He wouldn’t be a bad sweetener if Miami moves an outfielder to reel in a true ace-caliber arm. Even for a rebuilding team though, Straily is still affordable and reliable enough to be viewed as a building block. He’s not exactly blocking anyone in the minors at the moment either. Unless you still believe that Justin Nicolino thing is going to work out.

Next: Marlins At The Deadline

At any rate, three cheers for not dealing away one of the season’s few success stories. Given the Miami Marlins overall track record with prospects the past few years, I’d much rather see him take the ball next Opening Day than be moved for future potential.

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