Marlins Plan On Keeping Core Pieces
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Despite sitting 11 games out of the second Wild Card spot, the Miami Marlins do not plan on selling off some of their most valuable players before the July 31 trade deadline, team president of baseball operations Michael Hill told reporters on Sunday.
Hill went on to list Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto, Dan Straily, and Justin Bour as the players the team does not intend on trading.
"It's not stopping calls from coming in," said Hill. "It's been fairly consistent, with people checking in to see where we're at to see if we may be open to expanding the players we're talking about. But we haven't put any of those guys in play."
While the team's chances of making the playoffs decrease each day, the fact that the franchise is currently up for sale has made the front office hesitant to make wholesale changes until the ownership situation has been settled.
The Marlins are not completely closed for business, though. Last week, reliever David Phelps was traded to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for four prospects. In addition, closer A.J. Ramos, along with the rest of the pitchers in the bullpen, could be moved before next week's deadline.
"The relievers are more trade deadline-centric," Hill told reporters. "You're going to get value for those guys. You want to take advantage of the deadline. Those other guys are controllable."