Since the Miami Marlins signed Jose Reyes, there have been conflicting reports on if the Marlins were thinking about trading Hanley Ramirez or not. There were some initial grumblings that Ramirez was not happy with the idea of changing positions and that he'd requested a trade, but those turned out to be false. Both Hanley and the Marlins have remained quiet on this point over the last week, so it's difficult to say exactly what's going on.
Thankfully, MLB's Joe Frisaro cleared things up some this morning:
MLB.com has learned several teams indeed spoke with Miami officials about Ramirez in Dallas. But the Marlins didn't initiate the conversations. They were measuring what might be out there should they decide to shop their All-Star infielder.
Why should we believe Frisaro after all the other back-and-forth reports on the subject? To begin with, he was one of the few reporters to keep their cool during the Albert Pujols saga at the Winter Meetings, and his reports were generally some of the most reliable. And more to the point, this clarification makes sense.
The Marlins would be foolish to attempt to trade Hanley Ramirez after his poor 2011 season, as they would never receive a fair market value for him. Also, they are a much better team with Ramirez than without him, and trading him would essentially be akin to throwing in the towel on the 2012 season.
After all the Marlins have done to rejuvenate their fan base and to inspire some hope about the team, why would they undo all that by trading away their franchise player? If they can avoid this sort of situation, I'm sure they would do it.
For more on the Marlins, head over to SB Nation's blog on the Marlins, Fish Stripes.