Personally, I am more surprised that Cespedes is not a Marlin, rather than him being an Athletic.
Going into this offseason, even before the Marlins showed how they were going to spend money, it just felt that Cespedes would be a good fit for the Marlins. He is a young, talented OF who would join Stanton and play in a market that would go crazy for Yoenis. He would create new sources of revenue for the team in a way that other players could not.
As it turned out, the Marlins filled those needs with Jose Reyes and were looking to lock Cespedes up for 6 years. If Cespedes turns out to be a good player, the 6 years, slightly under 40 million the Marlins were offering seemed to be a really good deal for the Marlins franchise, and a deal that would drive me mad knowing that Cespedes would help with the age factor on that Marlins squad.
Out of no where, the Athletics came in, offered a similar deal in terms of money, but only 4 years. For the Athletics, this prevents them from finishing in last place now, and giving them star power on their roster when they inevitably move to a new stadium in San Jose. For Cespedes, he gets a contract that would release him at age 30, in his prime. If he has 4 good years as an Athletic, he would be looking at a big pay raise. Baseball Prospectus came out with a report saying that Cespedes was looking for ethier a 4 year deal or an 8-10 year deal, which would make sense. That would be a contract that lets him out right at his prime, or one way after. In other words, he would avoide that awkward 32 year old free agent when teams may be hesitant to offer a lot of years and a lot of money.
For the Marlins though, this could potentially be a major loss. The team could use some youth and the farm system is running dry. They have put themselves in the same position now that the 2006-07 Mets did in that they must win now, because age and injuries are coming up right behind them.
