Miami Marlins

With the Miami Marlins chilling in the cellar of the National League East at 38-56, the team is preparing to further its rebuild at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

Craig Mish of SiriusXM reported on Wednesday that Miami has placed infielder Starlin Castro and reliever Brad Ziegler on the trading block.

The non-waiver trade deadline offers the new ownership an opportunity to continue the franchise's latest fire sale. The Marlins traded away reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton and All-Star Marcell Ozuna during the offseason.

Castro, who was acquired in the Stanton trade, reportedly did not want to be a part of another rebuilding process and desired to be traded, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. Despite not being thrilled with his situation, he has not let it affect his play on the field.

The 28-year-old ranks third in the National League in hits and owns a .297 average on the season. He has added seven home runs, 22 doubles and one triple. He has four All-Star selections on his resume, including one last season.

Castro is owed $11 million next season and has a $16 million team option for 2020.

Ziegler, meanwhile, has a 4.50 ERA in 44 outings this season. However, it's been a tale of two seasons for him thus far. He had a 7.88 ERA on June 1 and has allowed just one run in 19 appearances since.

Some of the 38-year-old's in-depth numbers should jump out at teams. He has induced 10 double plays, the third-most in all of baseball. He has also held right-handers to a .221 average.

His biggest problem this season has been his inability to keep the ball in the park. He has served up a career-high six home runs—and it's not even the All-Star break.

Ziegler is making $9 million in 2018 and will be a free agent after the season.

Both Castro and Ziegler have proved they can be solid contributors. With the Marlins enduring a lost season, they have a couple of valuable assets who could help contenders.

Despite last-place status in the National League East with a 35-52 record, the Miami Marlins are in no rush to deal catcher J.T. Realmuto.

The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson reported the Marlins have discussed offering Realmuto a contract extension and that it would take "an astronomical offer" before the team would weigh a trade.

The Marlins have plenty of time before they need to offer Realmuto a contract. He's eligible for arbitration in 2019 and 2020 and will become an unrestricted free agent in 2021.

Realmuto is enjoying a career year. He's batting .306 and slugging .544 with 11 home runs and 38 RBI. His 3.2 WAR is first among catchers and tied for 12th among all position players, per FanGraphs.

The fact that the Marlins would consider an extension for Realmuto is somewhat surprising given his age. He turned 27 in March, so he's in the middle of his prime. By the time he's eligible for free agency, he'll be approaching 30.

Miami traded Dee Gordon, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton in the offseason, kicking off a substantial rebuild. By the time the team's in a position to contend again, Realmuto could be on the wrong side of the aging curve.

By re-signing Realmuto, ownership would be showing it's done cutting costs. But Realmuto arguably has more value to the Marlins as a trade asset given their state.

Miami Marlins pitcher Dan Straily and manager Don Mattingly reportedly have been suspended five games and one game, respectively, after Straily hit San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey with a pitch on Tuesday night, according to NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic.  

Both benches were warned when Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez hit Marlins center fielder Lewis Brinson in the second inning, and Straily was subsequently tossed for hitting Posey. 

"I think everybody knows if you give one warning after one guy then you're asking for trouble out of the blue," Mattingly said, according to ESPN news services. 

"I'm sure Rodriguez didn't mean to hit Brinson and Straily didn't mean to hit Buster. If they thought there was going to be something going on they should have given both teams warnings before the game. If they thought it was intentional on their part, [Rodriguez] should have been out of the game."

MLB.com's Joe Frisaro reported Straily will appeal Major League Baseball's ruling. 

Straily, 29, is 2-3 with 4.89 ERA, 1.500 WHIP and 1.56 strikeout-to-walk rate across 10 starts this season. 

His next start had been scheduled for Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the Marlins will have to push it back following news of the five-game ban. 

Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter didn't take kindly to a line of questioning from Bryant Gumbel about the current state of the Major League Baseball franchise. 

In an interview that will air on HBO's Real Sports this Tuesday (h/t Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald), Jeter referred to Gumbel as "mentally weak" when discussing if the Marlins were attempting to tank this season. 

Gumbel specifically asked Jeter if he would admit to the Marlins tanking.

Jeter responded by asking what tanking is then later went on to say he can't tell Gumbel how to think about what the team is trying to do. He added that teams would "never tell your players that you are expected to lose."

The Marlins traded Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon during the offseason. That quartet has a combined salary of $51.5 million this season. 

Miami's current payroll of $99.3 million is the eighth lowest in MLB. The franchise also denied Laurence Leavy, aka Marlins Man, the right to buy season tickets after he had a verbal altercation with Jeter during a town hall session in December. 

Jeter and Bruce Sherman purchased the Marlins from Jeffrey Loria in August. They are last in the National League East with a 5-14 record entering play Saturday. 

Contract info via Spotrac.

Miami Marlins owner Derek Jeter was a staple in the Bronx for 20 years, but when his team visits Yankee Stadium next week, don't expect the Captain to return to his old stomping grounds.

New York will host Miami for a two-game series next Monday and Tuesday. When asked if he will return to the place he called home for two decades, he made it known he would not be in attendance.

"I went to a spring training game when we played New York, but it would be an awkward situation for me to actually go to Yankee Stadium," Jeter said, per ESPN.com. "I'm just being honest with you guys, so that's why I'm not going."

That confirms what he told the YES Network back in February:

Jeter will always be remembered for what he did in pinstripes. He recorded 3,465 career regular-season hits, was a 14-time All-Star, a five-time Gold Glove Award winner, a five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, a five-time World Series champ and a World Series MVP. All of that culminated in his No. 2 being retired by the team.

Few players in baseball history are as beloved as Jeter; as an executive, though, he has received plenty of criticism in his first few months on the job. From the Marlins' most recent fire sale to the new management's handling of employees to the team's strained relationship with Marlins Man, there has been no shortage of controversies since Jeter and Co. purchased the team last September.

Jeter's decision to not make the trip to Yankee Stadium does, however, rob New Yorkers of a chance to thank him in person for sending reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton to the Bronx this past offseason. The legendary shortstop did tell the YES Network earlier this year, though, that he plans to play host at Marlins Park when the Yankees come to town in August. 

The Miami Marlins are basically fielding a minor league team this season. They're also getting outdrawn by one of their own. 

The Marlins' Double-A affiliate, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, had 6,960 fans at their home opener Wednesday, according to ESPN's Darren Rovell. The Marlins drew just 6,150 fans for their 4-1 loss to the New York Mets.

Miami averaged less than 7,000 fans per game for its three-game series against the Mets, who swept the Marlins out of their home field. They currently sit 3-9 and are in last place in the NL East after trading away Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich and Dee Gordon this offseason as part of a full-scale rebuild.

The Marlins drew 34,000 fans for their home opener, but they have experienced a mass exodus since. Their 12,641 average attendance this season is barely more than half of their rate from their first nine games in 2017, per Rovell.

Miami's new ownership is spearheaded by Derek Jeter, who has said the team wants to become profitable after years of losing money. It appears the Marlins are losing a ton of fans while they're at it. 

The Miami Marlins may play their home games in the United States-based Marlins Park, but the organization is hoping a courtroom will allow it to claim citizenship elsewhere in order to take some weight off its shoulders.

According to Douglas Hanks of the Miami Herald, the Marlins claimed citizenship in the British Virgin Islands in a court filing earlier this year . Here's what the franchise put in a court filing earlier this year:

"One of the members of Marlins Teamco is a corporation incorporated in the British Virgin Islands with its principal place of business in the British Virgin Islands. Accordingly, Marlins Teamco is a citizen of the British Virgin Islands."

Per Hanks, the team hopes to get a federally appointed arbitrator to handle the lawsuit by Miami-Dade County over Jeffrey Loria's sale of the team. If the Marlins are considered a company from outside the United States, it would make the dispute international and outside the jurisdiction of Miami-Dade County.                

Hanks tweeted a response from Miami-Dade County expressing its opposition to the claim.

Mike Hernandez of Mercury Public Affairs provided details of the suit:

The Marlins' stadium and parking garages are owned by the county and city of Miami, respectively. As a result, each qualify for a percentage of the team's profit from a sale. However, Loria reported no profit on the $1.2 billion sale of the team and said he in fact lost $140 million in the deal.

Since buying the franchise late last year, Derek Jeter and Co. have been involved in no shortage of controversies. Whether it be their fire sale of players, letting multiple employees go or a strained relationship with well-known season ticket holder Marlins Man, the new management has been making headlines left and right.

It's unclear if the Marlins' latest tactic will work. The team may believe it has found a loophole in the system, but the response of the county suggests they face a battle to win this part of the dispute.

An attorney for the estate of former Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jose Fernandez said the 24-year-old wasn't behind the wheel of the boat that crashed, killing Fernandez and two others.

The Miami Herald's Jordan McPherson reported Ralph Fernandez is contending the investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission "was fraught with false statements of fact, implicated practically unheard of destruction of evidence and included references to evidence that never existed."

In the final report by the FWC, authorities said Jose Fernandez was "drunk, high on cocaine and speeding" at the time of the crash, according to the Miami Herald's David Ovalle. Ovalle also wrote Fernandez "would likely have been charged with a host of crimes including manslaughter" had he survived the crash.

The FWC made its determination after finding his DNA on the steering wheel and matching injuries to his body to damaged areas of the center console.

Ralph Fernandez says the authorities who investigated the crash began their examination having already decided Jose Fernandez was to blame and thus declined to consider any evidence to the contrary.

In one instance, the attorney says somebody may have intentionally drugged Fernandez in order to steal $15,000 from him at a bar prior to the crash. Ralph Fernandez says the money was in a backpack the former pitcher had at the bar. Authorities found the backpack in question, but the money wasn't inside.

An officer in the FWC didn't make a note of the missing money in the final report.

Fernandez also questions whether the fact the three bodies were washed prior to a formal autopsy by the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office amounted to destruction of evidence.

"Marlins Man" Laurence Leavy said Wednesday that he will not buy tickets to Marlins home games this season after failing to come to terms on a deal with the team.

According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, Leavy said it will be the first time in the team's existence that he won't have season tickets.

"I have been a full season-ticket holder since the first year 25 years ago in 1993, and I don't know anybody else who spent as much money on the Marlins for tickets as I have in the last 25 years. While they asked us to be loyal to them and faithful and patient, they are not faithful and loyal to us."

On Monday, Andy Slater of SlaterScoops.com reported that Leavy sent the Marlins a $200,000 check in hopes of landing four season tickets behind home plate for 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The Marlins rejected the offer, and although they sent counteroffers, no deal was reached.

Had the Marlins accepted, Leavy would have spent $205 per seat rather than the $250 he was paying previously.

Leavy is known as "Marlins Man" due to his penchant for wearing bright orange Marlins gear and sitting in premium seats at Marlins games, as well as other major sporting events across the country. On Wednesday, Leavy said other teams have offered him the opportunity to represent them. 

"Four teams reached out to me already and said that I could become, like, the Tigers man or other teams, and they would be happy to sell me tickets on TV view for three years paid in advance with a substantial discount," he told Rovell.

Leavy said he will still attend the Marlins' road series against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium this season.

While he isn't sure what he will do about his famous look, Leavy said he may continue to wear the orange jersey, but without a Marlins logo attached.   

The testy relationship between "Marlins Man" and the Miami Marlins took another turn this week.

On Monday, Andy Slater of SlaterScoops.com reported the Marlins rejected a $200,000 check from Laurence Leavy to purchase four seasons tickets behind home plate for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons.

He would have paid an average of $205 per ticket rather than the $250 he is paying currently.

Leavy is a South Florida attorney known as Marlins Man due to his penchant for turning up in Marlins gear at many of the biggest sporting events across the country.

The Marlins reportedly attempted to negotiate the price of Leavy's offer, but Marlins Man turned it down.

With regard to the Marlins' rejection, Leavy said, "I'm disappointed they didn't take almost a quarter-million dollars for empty seats."

Leavy also quipped: "I wish the Marlins much success. I look forward to becoming a Diamond Club member again when they have a winning product, if that happens in my lifetime."

Marlins Man notably had a tense exchange with Marlins CEO Derek Jeter at a recent town-hall meeting regarding the decision to strip down Miami's roster during the offseason.

Per Slater, Leavy has been a Marlins season-ticket holder since their debut campaign in 1993.