Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: the NL East is strange
The Marlins
The Marlins new owners are already setting the stage for payroll cutting. So much so that Jorge Mas is speaking out to declare that this would not have been the case if he had won the bidding.
Well, you should have bid a bit more then, Jorge, for when you said ‘No mas’, that ended your right to have a say in the matter.
For sure, that means Giancarlo Stanton will be offered up (though note that he has veto power over any trade proposal).
Beyond that, though, their road will be difficult, since their higher-priced assets are going to be difficult to sell. Either they will have to go for pennies on the dollar, or else the Marlins will have to dig deep into a serious rebuild… again.
- Stanton… a couple hundred million for the next decade unless he opts out after 2020, which would be … surprising.
- Wei-Yin Chen – $52 million more through 2020
- Martin Prado – $28.5 million more through 2019
- Dee Gordon – $38.9 million through 2020 (less horrible than most)
- Edinson Volquez – $13 million in 2018
- Brad Zigler – $9 million in 2018
- Junichi Tazawa – $7 million in 2018
The “good” contract they have is that for Christian Yelich: $43.25 million more through 2021. But he’s also their best trade chip other than catcher J.T. Realmuto
The big jumps in expenses that are about to happen are for Marcel Ozuna (second arbitration year, Scott Boras client) and Stanton (salary jumps up $10 million to $25 million).
So at this point, they already have $95 million committed for 2018, with Ozuna and a few others likely to get healthy bumps via arbitration. Realmuto will have his first arb year, too.
The new owners would prefer to be in the immediate neighborhood of $55 million, since the franchise is losing $50 million annually at this point.
They think there is at least one team out there willing to help them out with a solid chunk of Stanton’s contract. More on that in a minute.
But will the Marlins be viable in 2018? Not a chance.