Loria Encouraged Reyes to Buy House in Miami Days Before Trade

[Party]

JUPITER -- The media waited all week for Giancarlo Stanton to talk about his feelings in the wake of the Marlins' offseason moves, which angered him initially. Given Stanton's mostly muted reponses to almost every question, let's put it this way: I would have much rather been up in Dunedin this morning listening to Jose Reyes.

Reyes, speaking to the media for the first time at spring training, said Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria encouraged him to buy a home in Miami just days before he was traded to Toronto. Asked what he'd advise any future free agents who might be interested in playing for the Marlins, Reyes replied: "I don't have to tell them nothing. They can see what happened."

Reyes also told reporters he felt sorry for Stanton.

Reyes, who signed a 6-year deal with the Marlins and was traded after only one season, said he was surprised when he learned he had been traded.

"I was shocked because Jeffrey Loria, he always told me he's never going to trade me," Reyes said. "He always called my agent and said, 'Tell Jose to get a good place here to live,' and stuff like that."

Reyes said he had dinner with Loria only a few days before the trade and, even then, 'he was still talking about 'get a nice house in Miami.' That was kind of crazy I mean, how can you want me to spend some money in Miami when I have my house in New York, and you're going to trade me in two days?"

Future free agents won't be receiving any ringing endorsements from Reyes about the Marlins.

"I signed there for like six years," he said. "I played there for one year. So I don't have to explain anything. But I feel sorry for the fan base there in Miami because they had a great fan base there. To let them down like that, I mean, that's going to be tough for them."

As for Stanton, Reyes said, "I feel sorry for him."

Informed of that comment, Stanton said Friday in his "State of the Stanton" address that nobody should feel sorry for him.

"What is there to feel sorry for me about?," he said. "I'm in the big leagues. I play a game for a living."

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_...#storylink=cpy

[Ramp]

http://soflamarlins.com/showpost.php...9&postcount=20

being discussed here

[Party]

An article with detail > tweet

This deserves its own thread.

[Fritz]

Lots of Canadians do winter in Miami. Makes sense.

[oakelmpine]

[emkayseven]

DUNEDIN, FLA. -- They didn't ask to be here.

Deceived by their former employers in Miami, these new players were forced to come to the Toronto Blue Jays simply because there was no alternative.

"I guess I could have retired," said veteran starting pitcher Mark Buehrle, who would have been walking away from $48 million - but keeping his family together in their new dream home in Miami. "I threw it out there a few times, but my wife said, 'You're an idiot. That's crazy talk.'"

Now that Buehrle and the rest of his Miami Marlins imports have spent a few days together in Blue Jays camp, they think this is going to work just fine after all.

"It took me a long time to wrap my arms around the situation," said Buehrle, who will be leaving behind his wife, two kids and four dogs because one of their dogs, Slater, is a pit bull, banned in the province of Ontario. "I thought I'd be staying in Miami for four years. I moved my family down there, we bought this house, put a lot of money into it and thought we'd have it as our retirement home.

"Then I get a call from (Marlins President David) Samson, he's going on this big spiel, and rambling, and starts saying I'm traded. He starts naming the other guys I'm traded with, and I think, 'OK, obviously, this is a joke. This can't be serious.' But when I got off the phone, I'm thinking, 'What the hell just happened?'

"That was the frustrating thing, all of this stuff we were told. They told us they wouldn't blow up the team like they've done previously. Just one year into it, it was all a lie, tricking us, trying to get us down there for one year. Well, it worked. They got us. They got us good."

There's no legal recourse or revenge Buehrle and his fellow Miami expatriates can seek for the 12-player blockbuster deal that sent them packing to Canada, but, oh, what he'd give to be on that World Series parade route, waving to Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and Samson.

"Now that I'm here, seeing the guys and the talent they bring," Buehrle says, "you start thinking, 'Hey, this is going to be pretty good.'"

Funny what a clubhouse loaded with talent - and realistic expectations of winning a World Series - can do for morale.

The Blue Jays might have been thrown together like so many bodies in a crowded subway station, but they're getting the sense this train will be chugging until late October.

"Hopefully we can start kicking some people's ass this spring," Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista says. "We're not taking anything for granted. It's not like we're playing Little League teams. But just like you guys build expectations, so do we.

"Anybody would be a fool to say or think we're not going to be good."

The Marlins, of course, were saying similar things last spring. They bought a team built to win immediately. They went 69-93 and six weeks later were all thrown into a fire sale - and several landed together in Toronto: shortstop Jose Reyes, starting pitchers Buehrle and Josh Johnson, infielder Emilio Bonafacio and catcher John Buck.

"I was shocked," Johnson said, "I remember, once they said something about wanting me to stay there the rest of my career.

"But I knew it was time to move on. And now that I'm here, the way this organization has treated me, it's just amazing."

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who also traded for National League Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey from the New York Mets, was a one-man welcome wagon, asking his new players if they needed help finding places to rent, paying for families' dinners on apartment-seeking trips, even setting up car services.

The message was clear: Don't let the Miami experience kill your trust in management.

"With all of those players that felt they were lied to or what not," Anthopoulos said, "it's really important we build a trust with our actions, not our words. We have to be very careful overall, because they felt they were told something and it didn't happen."

The Blue Jays, like the Marlins, don't give no-trade clauses in their contracts. That's where the comparisons stop. Anthopoulos couldn't believe it, either, that Reyes said Loria suggested he purchase a home in Miami, two days before he was traded.

Reyes, who now says he is thrilled to be with the Blue Jays, has no plans to buy a home in Toronto. He learned his lesson. He's reminded when he looks in the mirror.

The Marlins forced Reyes to chop off his dreadlocks last spring to conform to club policy. The Blue Jays have no such rule, but it's too late, Reyes says, to grow his hair back.

"That's OK," he says, "I'll feel better when we win. I'll take that ring over my hair."

http://www.rgj.com/usatoday/article/1929433

[Ramp]

I have 0 problem with Loria and Co telling the players they wouldn't blow the team up (last offseason) and with them telling JJ they wanted him for the future.

Not like they blew up a 87 win team here.

That being said, ownership still blows

[Swifty]

I have 0 problem with Loria and Co telling the players they wouldn't blow the team up (last offseason) and with them telling JJ they wanted him for the future.

This is a poor mindset when agents have long memories and long-standing grudges against this ownership group.

That being said, I think that Reyes' griping probably crosses a line because the Marlins were not only the only team willing to go $100 mil+, they were the only team willing to go above $80 million.

I feel for Buehrle, though, he had pretty much the same offer on the table from the Nats and took the Marlins at their word regarding the long-term thing.

[Beef]

Yeah - you know where else that stuff happens?

Everywhere

Every business

[Fish Tank Frenzy]

My problem is that the used car salesman shtick will not work again. No legit FA will sign here unless they are grossly overpaid.

[Chewford]

Yeah - you know where else that stuff happens?

Everywhere

Every business

You're just not a wartime consigliere, Beef. This is personal, not business.

[Beef]

I don't follow

[Namaste]

I've seen several posts over the offseason that say something like "I have no issues at all with the way the Marlins handled A, B, C , D , E and F.........but the ownership is still awful".

Ramp or Beef, can you remind me why you still feel the ownership blows because I've honestly forgotten. I'm really not trying to be a dick here.

[Beef]

I've never said that

[Cambridge]

I've seen several posts over the offseason that say something like "I have no issues at all with the way the Marlins handled A, B, C , D , E and F.........but the ownership is still awful".

Ramp or Beef, can you remind me why you still feel the ownership blows because I've honestly forgotten. I'm really not trying to be a dick here.

I might have said this, I really don't have an issue with blowing it up from a baseball standpoint. The issue was they put themselves in a hole with the Reyes/Buerhle/Bell signings and left zero payroll flexibility.

Ownership issues:

- Stanton not offered extension or locking up players on the cheap
- Samson (no particular reason there are so many)
- Expecting to build from draft and not spending on IFA
- Not thinking more than a single season ahead with payroll
- Not seemingly having an overall plan for the organisation

Still they could have taken a Twins approach and held on to their big names, hoping to turn it around - personally I prefer the Marlins oulook for the next 2/3 years. Though as described above they don't do themselves any favours.