Another Marlins player is asking for a trade, but the team is declining to acquiesce to that request

The Marlins have already sent Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna out of town as part of their “rebuild” and now catcher J.T. Realmuto is also requesting a trade.

Like many of the other players on the team (cough, Stanton) he sees the writing on the wall and would like out of this situation as fast as possible, pretty please. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that Realmuto has requested a trade, and points out out that if the Marlins wanted to they could get some solid assets back for him in a deal.

But, apparently, the Marlins don’t want to.

According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Miami isn’t interested in completely gutting their entire roster as part of the rebuild. At least not yet.

Realmuto won’t be a free agent until 2021, and hit .278/.332/.451 with a 109 OPS+ in 141 games for the Marlins in 2017. He’ll only be turning 27 on the cusp of the 2018 season so the Marlins could absolutely get a few good and young prospects back for him if they do end up deciding to trade him. That is, if they figure out how to actually ask for the good prospects when trading players.

Just like with Christian Yelich, who is also still trapped in this haunted castle that won’t release good baseball players from its clutches until they accomplish three challenges, the Marlins could end up changing their minds and trading Realmuto later on or next season.

It’s tough to tell, because the Marlins aren’t really making it clear what they want this rebuild to be or to accomplish. It’s just,

Step 1: Get as much money off the books as possible

Step 2: Play baseball?

They could balk on his trade request now but reconsider in May when they get things under control in that front office. But for right now, Realmuto is apparently an actual part of their rebuild “plans” and will be staying in Miami for the foreseeable future.

At least he can enjoy the sun while he’s there?