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Hurricane Loria: How Jeffery Loria Dismantled the Miami Marlins.

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Everything must go. This offer won’t last. Those are usually words you may hear in about a week or so with Thanksgiving on the horizon, but for Jeffrey Loria and the Miami Marlins, Black Friday arrived on Tuesday November 13th, nearly one year to the day of the then Florida Marlins move to Miami.

Following a disappointing 69-93 campaign in 2012, amid high expectations, the Miami Marlins decided to head back to the drawing board and rebuild. Out with the old in Ozzie Guillen and Heath Bell, in with the new in Mike Redmond and Tino Martinez. While most of Miami’s initial moves seemed justifiable, Tuesday’s ransacking of the Marlins roster initiated by Jeffrey Loria and David Samson, seemed puzzling, to be mild, abominable to be crude.

The core of the Miami Marlins in aces Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, Shortstop Jose Reyes, Catcher John Buck, and the “jack of all trades”, Emilio Bonifacio were unceremoniously jettisoned north of the border to the Toronto Blue Jays for established major leaguers Yunel Escobar and Jeff Mathis, along with a slew of prospects led by highly regarded OF prospect Jake Marisnick and Adeiny Hechavarria.

Following the deal, the only recognizable faces that remain with the Marlins (for now) are Giancarlo Stanton, Ricky Nolasco and Logan Morrison, the latter two the subject of trade rumors at the moment. When it is all set and done the most distinguishable faces left in the organization might be broadcasters Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton.

As Marlins president David Samson goes on 790 the Ticket and spins this deal as the establishment of a brand new core, hoping to avenge the failure of the 2012 season, fish faithful are understandably irate that the ownership has bamboozled them once again. The memories linger from the original Marlins regime led by Wayne Huizenga, who infamously dealt every high priced player on Florida’s roster immediately following the 1997 World Series championship. A similar firesale, albeit on a much smaller scale between 2003 and 2005 after the Marlins second world title, this time under the current regime, led to increasing distrust between Marlins fans and the front office.

Allegations of ownership profiting over revenue sharing money, along with the Marlins coercion of the local government to force the citizens of Miami and its surrounding areas to foot the majority of the bill for a brand new stadium has led to bitter hostility in the path the Miami ballclub has taken.

If the ticket holders of the Miami Marlins are financing their ballpark, should they have a say in the moves that the team executes?

At this point it seems like the Marlins fans would be in favor of their ball club’s execution, akin John McKay. It appears that Jeffery Loria is only interested in continuing to beat the system of Major League Baseball and line his pockets at every opportunity he gets.

After all he profited from the eventual demise of the Montreal Expos by dramatically slashing operating costs, then selling the club back to Major League Baseball. While the prospects obtained by Toronto may develop into front line major league players, (It has happened before; see AJ Burnett, Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez.), Marlins fans, hoodwinked, not once, not twice, but three times by the higher ups in the organization are not going to be receptive to yet another rebuilding project led by false hopes, dreams and promises, nor should they.

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