Marlins still looking to fix what was broken with franchise
Can Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins front office continue to fix what was believed to be a broken baseball team?
There are some fans out there who still are not crazy about the Miami Marlins decision to trade their big-name stars for minor-league prospects over the last year.
As the team prepares to begin the 2019 season, some of those prospects will help to define this franchise for the coming year and beyond. When Sandy Alcantara takes the mound, he will be part of a rebirth of baseball in South Florida.
Should the 23-year-old come along with Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards, and Pablo Lopez prove they are ready do you handle big league hitters and regular basis, Then the “broken” franchise that CEO Derek Jeter has spoken about on many occasions, has begun to mend.
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“The team didn’t win. The team didn’t finish above .500 since 2009. It hadn’t been to the postseason since 2003. So we’re fixing something that wasn’t working,” he said.“Yeah, I understand the fact that there was a core group of players here — and they’re all great players, we’ve never shied away from saying that — but the bottom line, if you want to be sustainable over time, you have to build your system. And for whatever reason, that group didn’t win.”
Derek Jeter knows a thing or two about winning as he was a cornerstone player with the New York Yankees. While Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon, Justin Bour and J.T. Realmuto were core players the team looked to build around with the old ownership group, the proof of losing since 2009 was all it took to determine this was not the direction Jeter and the front office wanted to take.
Now, this is a franchise whose light shines slightly brighter this season after a 2018 season if utter darkness.
Jeter also said in his comments that while the players traded for prospects may have been great, the fact they could not win is something they must take some responsibility for. Stanton had 59 home run season in 2017 on his way to the NL MVP. Ozuna had the best season of his career as well. Yelich got better at the plate while wearing a Marlins uniform. Realmuto was a first-time All-Star last season.
Now, with a new core of players to build around, the old regime is good. The new foundation is being laid. This is the new-look Miami Marlins. The minor league system is being redefined with players from these trades, which include Alcantara, who is expected to at some point become the ace of the team’s rotation.
“The team managed to grab a top-25 prospect, Sixto Sanchez, in the Realmuto deal, but the Marlins’ other big-name prospects don’t appear until around No. 70 on Baseball Prospectus’ top-100 list,” Chris Cwik of Yahoo Sports wrote.