Hanley Ramirez Traded To Dodgers

The rules have always been different for the big stars, and always will be. And it’s probably not easy for a big star to change his attitude when he’s an ex-big star. Which is why trading this particular ex-big star might have been the best thing for everyone involved. Even leaving aside the money the Marlins are saving.

There were a few other discouraging words, along with some diplomatic words, but at the same time Ramírez seems to have been well-liked by at least a few of his teammates. It’s like most things, probably. The simple answer is that Hanley Ramírez was a cancer in the clubhouse, everyone’s glad to be rid of him, and this is a classic case of addition by subtraction. But the truth is probably just a bit more complicated.

Well, Jeff Passan seems to figure that line of questioning is beyond the point. It’s not about the fans. It’s about the two men who run the franchise, owner Jeffrey Loria and president David Samson. According to Passan, Loria and Samson have been running a con:

You should read the whole thing, if only because fewer writers are more entertaining when worked up than Jeff Passan when he’s worked up. Let’s just say Jeff’s probably not going to be on Loria’s Christmas-card list this year.

They’re calling it a fire sale.

In an unrelated note, Wednesday afternoon the Marlins sold out their new ballpark and set an attendance record.

What really happened: Same thing, except Jonathan Meloan was the player added to convince the Indians to pay Blake’s salary. That’s not as amusing/amazing, so Santana gets remembered as the face of deadline frugality.

The new Dodgers don’t want other team’s money. If they threw it onto the current pile of money, there’s a chance the two stacks of money wouldn’t get along. It’s pure-bred money with show papers, and adding another stack of money would … look, you understand. They prefer to redistribute the money.

While the deal has not yet been officially announced by the teams, here are the details, via the Los Angeles Times:

For the Marlins, Eovaldi is the key to the deal; the 22-year-old righthander has a 4.15 ERA and 1.473 WHIP in 10 starts for the Dodgers this season but was widely regarded as one of the top young pitchers in the Dodgers organization, skipping Triple-A and coming directly to the major leagues from Double-A.

They’ve done this because a lot of things have gone well.

One thing hasn’t gone well at all: Shortstop.

This isn’t the kind of fire sale people expected from the Marlins. That one would have involved jettisoning all of the high-priced players acquired this past off-season, in order to avoid paying long-term for the publicity and hype that signing them in the first place generated. Sanchez represented an expiring contract that the Marlins were able to swap for future value, one who was borderline at best to receive a qualifying offer that would have resulted in a compensation draft pick were he to sign elsewhere. Sanchez is pretty good, not great, and the new compensation system is meant to address the draft picks that were handed out to teams losing that kind of player. Getting a top prospect back from someone who they were going to just outright lose after the season is a coup. Infante isn’t an impact piece, either -- he’s simply a capable infielder, one owed $4 million in 2013, that helped the Marlins bring back more for their future.

Hanley doesn’t fit in the Anibal/Infante camp, nor is he similar to the recently acquired and expensive types from this past winter. Ramirez signed a six-year extension before the 2009 season, one that was set to pay him $70 million. The first real expensive season of the contract is 2012, with the final three years of the contract collectively worth $43.5 million, or nearly two-thirds of the total contract. He was here before the shiny new toys, and his contract is set to keep him here during their years, too.