I’m just sitting over here doing double take after double take. I’m reading the report, and I still can’t believe it.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, the Miami Marlins and their new owners will not be making the FREAKING OBLIGATORY $20 million posting bid on 23-year-old Japanese ace/slugger Shohei Ohtani. The bid, which is not actually payable until and unless you actually sign Ohtani for a chump change signing bonus, and which is paid out over 18 months, is too much money for the Marlins to scrape together.
From the Sun-Sentinel’s mind-boggling report:
That, according to multiple sources, is where the cash-strapped Marlins run into problems. They are looking to cut payroll significantly under CEO Derek Jeter, and the team is losing a reported $50 million this year. Just weeks after an ownership group led by chairman Bruce Sherman and Jeter bought the team for $1.2 billion, the Marlins are looking for additional investors, FanRag Sports reported last week ….
Wrote ESPN national baseball writer Buster Olney: ‘All 30 teams should express a willingness to post the money necessary to sign Ohtani, because first- and second-year salary so low. Failure to do so is like the GM equivalent of not running out a ground ball.’
Miami is not buying a lotto ticket. Miami is not running out this ground ball.
This is borderline unforgivable, and I feel very sorry for Marlins fans.
To be quite sure, were the Marlins gonna land Ohtani? Probably not. But to not even try and to cry poverty as the reason? When you have the opportunity to get, perhaps, $200+ million in value for $20 million? And you’re not even committed to the $20 million unless you actually land the player! The Marlins are, in effect, saying they don’t believe Ohtani is worth $20 million to them. That’s how broke they are.
There’s also a sad Cubs connection here: the only in-person look the Marlins even got at Ohtani came from their new director of international operations Fernando Seguignol … when he worked for the Cubs. The Marlins, themselves, reportedly never even bothered to scout Ohtani.