The Miami Marlins shipped Hanley Ramirez off the Los Angeles Dodgers in a surprise deal in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Rumors about a potential Ramirez trade had been circulating for some time, but it did nothing to relieve the initial shock of the news.
Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria described a "painful moment" to the press.
"It's no secret I love [Ramirez]," Loria told Fox Sports and MLB Network reporter Ken Rosenthal. "He needs to have a fresh beginning, a new beginning ... This is a very painful moment for me. But we had to do something."
Ramirez was hitting just .246 this season, part of the team's deflated expectations this year. He was also due $38.5 million over the remainder of his contract with the Marlins, a burden for a team struggling to win.
Fish Stripes, SB Nation's Marlins blog, judges the deal a success.
Given that the Marlins invested no extra money in sending Ramirez away, they should actually be pretty happy with the return. A top 100 Baseball America prospect is nothing to sneeze at, and Eovaldi's relative success in the majors thus far means that he is another piece that could need only a little seasoning in Triple-A to be ready to insert into the rotation. For the honor of giving away Ramirez's future performance and contract, the Marlins received yet another potential 2013 starting rotation arm to fill the holes undoubtedly made by the departures of Anibal Sanchez and Carlos Zambrano. Not bad at all.
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