The Marlins have reportedly offered contracts to Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols, and Mark Buehrle and they have expressed interest in Ryan Madison.
Are they the 2005 Mets?
Going into 2005, the Mets brought in a new manager to bring a new sense of energy into the franchise (and a new GM to spur this, which is probably the largest reason for why the Marlins are not the Mets) in Willie Randolph. These Marlins have brought in Ozzie Guillien. The Mets made offers to, signed, or pursued Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Pedro Martinez. In 2006 the Mets then acquired Delgado and then signed Wagner. For the Mets the off season before 2005 and 2006 were the two offseasons that completely changed public perceptions of how the Mets operated because they looked so similar to the Yankees.
Now we have the same thing happening to the Marlins. While they haven't signed anyone yet, they have pursued 3 of the top, and by top I mean actually the top, free agents for this winter and are already discussing more contracts. They have a new stadium, a new look and they are trying to get a new team to fill in the stands. I'm curious to see how this plays out because it is as if the team is essentially buying the market, and there is nothing wrong with that.
(The Non-Mets fan version of me, or the version of me as an outside of Baseball) would like to see what happens to this team 3, 4 years down the road if they sign all of these players, specifically if they do this quick fix system for a few years. If they do it right, they could be a dynasty but they could end up exactly like the 05, 06, 07 and 08 Mets just as easily. So far the only team of late that has been able to balance spending a lot of money, and trading and farm system development is the Phillies, and I'm not convinced yet that this Marlin model looks like that.
It should be an interesting few weeks….
