30 Teams in 30 Days 2018 30 Miami Marlins

We did it: we finally made it to the last post of my 30 Teams in 30 Days project! And there is no team in the Major Leagues that deserves to be listed at the end more than the Marlins. I mentioned last time about the right and wrong ways to enter a rebuild, and what happened in Miami over the 2017-18 offseason was just about the wrongest way possible to go about it. Even wronger than that time the Marlins dismantled the team the winter after they won the World Series. Or when they undid all the promising win-now moves they made to pretend that they were serious about contending, just one year after opening their new taxpayer-funded stadium. Sensing a pattern here? Anyway, here's the roster that will be confounding fans in South Florida through the 2018 season:

All-Acquired Factor

As with the Rays, this category is more about the players who were dealt away than the ones the Marlins got in return. The trade of NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton brought back mostly salary relief, but also second baseman Starlin Castro, who really just represents the portion of Stanton's contract that the Yankees don't have to pay for. When Christian Yelich went to the Brewers, he netted Miami their new top prospect Lewis Brinson (ranked #27 on MLB.com's top 100 list going into the season), who has jumped right into the center field role, despite a sub-.200 batting average. That same trade also saw the Marlins acquire outfielder Monte Harrison (MLB.com's #71 prospect) and infielder Isan Diaz (who had been ranked #86 as of the start of Spring Training, but had since fallen off the list by Opening Day). The best piece received from the Cardinals in return for Marcell Ozuna was pitching prospect Sandy Alcantara, but he has yet to debut in the majors with his new team. Also Dee Gordon was used to acquire Nick Neidert from the Mariners, among others, who is now the organization's #10-ranked prospect.

Fifth Starter

Heh, if only it was just the fifth starter I had to determine; as of today, only two of the four pitchers projected for rotation spots in the Sports Illustrated baseball preview issue have started a game for the Marlins in 2018. For the record, those are Jose Urena (who's 0-4 with an ERA just under 5, despite a much more reasonable FIP hovering around 4) and rookie lefty Dillon Peters (who has a .500 win-loss record, but an ERA and FIP that are both pushing 6). Dan Straily has been on the shelf for the whole year with a forearm strain, although he's actually scheduled to come off the DL to start today. And Adam Conley was optioned to the minors a couple weeks before Opening Day, and has struggled to an ERA close to 9 in Triple-A. Meanwhile, the other three rotation spots have been filled by Jarlin "the Marlin" Garcia (who has been quite impressive with a 1.00 ERA (4.00 FIP) in his three starts and two relief appearances), Caleb Smith (a Rule 5 pick who seems likely to stick around), and Trevor Richards (the organization's #27-ranked prospect), although the latter was optioned to the minors when expensive lefty Wei-Yin Chen (ranked 518 overall by MLB.com) came off the DL sooner than expected from his UCL injury.

New Ownership

Former Yankees star shortstop Derek Jeter had been linked to the Marlins as a potential new owner way back in April of last year. Other buyers entered the picture, including fellow Hall of Famer Tom Glavine and local Miami business leader Jorge Mas, but Mr. November (and his investment group led by Bruce Sherman) outbid them all and emerged victorious. Since then, Jeter and Co. have embarked on a rapid and drastic payroll-reduction mission, involving divesting themselves of such troubling assets as... one of the league's best offensive outfields. What's all the more frustrating for Marlins fans is that the talent brought back in these deals was decidedly not of the top-shelf variety as a whole, laying bare the new ownership group's strategy of operating on a bare bones budget at the expense of the team's fortunes. To make matters worse, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was likely aware of Jeter's plans to slash payroll, despite repeatedly denying it on an interview with Dan Le Batard. To add insult to injury, Jorge Mas, the brother of Mastec CEO Jose Mas (who I was instrumental in casting for an episode of CBS's Undercover Boss), has stated that he would have increased payroll and taken a shot at contention had he won the bidding war. Of course, hindsight is 20-20 in these situations, and we may never get a glimpse of Mas's version of "Project Wolverine," but I can think of more than a few Marlins fans who would have gladly taken their chances.

Song

Miami - Will Smith

At least we can end this entry on a strong note (literally), as rapper-turned-actor-turned-Scientologist Will Smith's ode to the jewel of South Florida has endured over the years as a classic party jam, despite its distinct 90's feel. There are many other songs and artists associated with Miami, including anything off the Pitbull album M.I.A.M.I,, but you can't beat the former Fresh Prince's ultra-clean sound for pure nostalgia factor. It's times like these that I'm extra glad that the franchise changed its name from the Florida Marlins, because otherwise we'd be looking at stuff like Eric Clapton's "Mainline Florida," or Jimmy Buffet's "Floridays," or anything by Flo Rida.

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So that's it for 30 Teams in 30 Days 2018! There was one little SNAFU with the Padres post going up a day late, but, you guys, I PROMISE that I had it all written and ready to go, there was just some confusion with the mobile app version of Blogger that I used to upload a picture from my phone, and I must have hit "Save as Draft" instead of "Schedule." But nobody's perfect, and it's these little imperfections that make us all beautiful unique snowflakes. So what did everybody think? Did you readers enjoy getting more regular posts on this blog? Analytics is telling me that an average of 20.48 of you did! Enjoy it while it lasted, because I'll likely be returning to a more sporadic schedule as I work on other projects, such as drafting the new Magic: The Gathering set, and getting my PS4 repaired so that I can continue my dream as a budding Let's Play-er.