It all started when the Miami Marlins traded 2B Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres. Marlins PBO Peter Bendix has an explanation, but it seems that it was largely ignored. Combine that with a relatively quiet off-season, and the ridiculous narrative that I'll cover was formed on social media. Forget about the actual plan, it's easier to believe silly fantasies.
Miami Marlins PBO Peter Bendix is being accused of the most ridiculous things.
The narrative goes like this... "Peter Bendix is obsessed with rebuilding the Miami Marlins. He purposely didn't improve the team much in the off-season to guarantee a losing season. He then immediately traded Luis Arraez for the first available offer, once the team was confirmed as having a bad season. He wants to trade everyone else and is unhappy if the team is winning. He wants a long rebuilding effort and would prefer to lose for years".
Let's start with the obvious and strangely ignored fact... if The Fish are losing, the blame goes on Bendix. This means that he's not going to get opportunities elsewhere if Bruce Sherman fires him for that. If the conspiracy theorists think that Sherman wants to lose too that's equally as ridiculous. Sherman hasn't proven to want to spend. The fact that he hired Bendix as soon as the farm got worse, shows that he clearly cares about winning. He just doesn't want to spend much to get it.
The Tampa Bay Rays don't do rebuilds. Peter Bendix was brought in from them to copy their way of doing things. The key here is NO REBUILDS. Bendix doesn't want to do a rebuild, that's not his plan. He didn't trade Luis Arraez during the off-season because he didn't think that he could replace him adequately. That's not how a PBO planning a rebuild thinks. He traded him when his value was highest (team control) and paid his salary to get the best return.
The ridiculous narrative claims that Bendix took a terrible offer and likely the first that he got. That's just insane. This implies that he's so incompetent that he didn't bother finding out what other teams would have offered. That he didn't understand what was out there. How was he then able to become second in command in Tampa?! He knows what he's doing. If the trade was so terrible, then there surely would have been reports about how shocked other teams are that a better offer, their better offers weren't taken.
I see the exact opposite. Major outlets are praising the Miami Marlins on the trade. Multiple outlets are praising it in fact. As far as the quiet off-season, the team had a bad Pythagorean W-L record and gave up more runs then scored. Is it really shocking that Bendix didn't want to go all-in? Especially with the ace Sandy Alcantara out for the 2024 season already before the off-season even began.
Peter Bendix is not a proven success just yet, but let's stop with the silly narratives. The Miami Marlins win-loss record over the next few seasons will be a better verdict on his work.