Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria has had a brutal offseason in the media, between dealing away most of his top talent and being accused of advising former Marlins' shortstop Jose Reyes to purchase a home in Miami two days before trading him to Toronto.
Loria is on a media blitz defending his decision to detonate the core of the franchise that he had assembled just months earlier, and blamed much of the negative press related to his deal with the city of Miami to publicly finance their new stadium on a "smear campaign" run by the Miami Dolphins in order to secure a new stadium for themselves.
Loria denied ever recommending that Reyes buy a home in Florida and called the dismantling of the team necessary, saying ''We didn't break up the 1927 Yankees. We broke up a losing ball club that was going nowhere.'' The Marlins traded Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Heath Bell and fired manager Ozzie Guillen. All but Johnson were brought in before the season began. ''We had to turn back the clock for the moment and push the restart button, and get these young players in here and get them together and look where we are in another year or so.''
Another storyline this offseason was the reaction of star 23-year-old outfielder Giancarlo Stanton to the massive purge of expensive talent, which was decidedly negative. Loria said that he wants to sign Stanton to a multiyear deal.
The Marlins payroll is at $45 million this year, expected to be the lowest in baseball, but Loria made no guarantees that the payroll will eventually reach or exceed the $90 million they were at last season. ''We're never going to get to $100 million,'' Loria said. ''We don't have the TV contract to do that.''
Disgruntled fans who want Loria to sell the team appear to be out of luck. ''I'm interested in making this successful,'' he said.
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