Jose Fernandez is one of the game’s very best pitchers by every conceivable metric. The 2013 Rookie of the Year is 22-9 for his career with a tidy 2.40 ERA, a 1.01 WHIP and a 10.5 K/9. He also set a modern record by winning his first 17 (and counting) decisions at home, no small feat. His career was interrupted by this generation’s rite of passage for pitchers that we call Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss much of the past two seasons. He also spent time on the DL this season with a bicep strain, but he’s still just 23 years old and, assuming no further catastrophic injuries or surgeries, he should be one of the league’s best pitchers for years to come. Most other teams would try to lock him up and count on him to be an affordable ace for years to come, but the Marlins are not like most other teams. However, the Miami Marlins history hurts them with Jose Fernandez.
Miami Marlins History Hurts Them with Jose Fernandez
The history of the Marlins is well-known: trade emerging players quickly instead of paying them off when their salaries are due to increase. Josh Beckett, Miguel Cabrera, A.J. Burnett and many others have passed through the franchise’s revolving door through the years, and that’s just players that came through their system. For others, we can go back to Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Carlos Delgado and pretty much the entire roster of the 1997 World Series Champion Marlins. When the team signed star Giancarlo Stanton to a bank-busting contract last season, the baseball world was shocked but quick to point out that Stanton did have an opt-out clause so that he, too, could flee the premises if he felt he should. In short, nothing with the Marlins is ever a sure thing. This was true with former owner H. Wayne Huizenga, and it remains so under the ownership of New York art dealer and serial object-of-baseball-scorn Jeff Loria.
The Marlins now have this young dominant pitcher looking at another of hopefully many full and splendid seasons, and yet Twitter is ablaze this week with rumors that they might trade him. Maybe his arm does have some other issues that the public isn’t aware of, or maybe the team is worried that his pitching motion might lead to more injuries. There are now reports that he’s a problem in the clubhouse and that club officials have openly rooted for him to fail to “humble” him a little. What of that is true? Who knows, but the larger point is that we are in November and have a long off-season ahead, we have a young ace who comes up for arbitration starting next year, and we have a team whose owner and front office might charitably be described as “erratic.” Put that in a blender and add a generous portion of Twitter outrage/snark/chatter, and you get all kinds of speculation about where Jose Fernandez and his golden arm might be employed next season. The Marlins would be nuts to move him right now, but doing nutty things is all part of the deal for them.
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