Marlins President of Baseball Operations Mike Hill said that he has no orders from ownership to "lower payroll or add prospects as a way to make a sale more appealing," according to Joel Sherman of the N.Y. POST. Hill said that he is "still taking orders only from" team Owner Jeffrey Loria and team President David Samson. Hill: "There has been nothing on my radar as far as having to make a trade (for the benefit of the sale)." The Marlins are "believed to be losing" $60-80M this year (N.Y. POST, 7/10). MLB.com's Joe Frisaro tweeted the Marlins "continue to tell clubs their main controllable players: Stanton, Ozuna, Yelich, Bour, Realmuto, Straily are not available." S.F. Chronicle's Henry Schulman: "New owners don't want to get rid of best players. Want to generate excitement and win now" (TWITTER.com, 7/9). However, in Ft. Lauderdale, Dave Hyde wrote the Marlins' impending fire sale "is coming," as the team will "sell everything but the home-run sculpture." The Marlins have already "shipped out scouts to a half-dozen teams’ minor-league parks to study prospects and consider trades," which "makes rebuilding sense considering the stagnant record, the record payroll, the lack of pitching and prospects and the coming storm of contracts" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 7/9).
LOCAL TIES: ESPN.com's Pedro Gomez noted the Marlins have been "among the worst" teams in MLB attendance for years, but that "could shift dramatically" amid the possibility of a local buyer who has "strong ties to the local Cuban community." MasTec co-Founder & Chair Jorge Mas, born and raised in Miami, has "emerged as a serious candidate to purchase the Marlins." This potential sale "could be the elixir for the Marlins." Unlike Loria, who was "born and raised in New York, Mas would be viewed as a local who cares about the community" (ESPN.com, 7/9). The GUARDIAN's Chris Smith writes this week's All-Star Game is "little more than a lucrative open house" for Loria as he looks to sell the team. Many in the city will "see any sale as a merciful ending to his tenure in Miami." Smith: "Thanks to the team’s ownership, the Marlins have become a byword for sporting dysfunction and, with the eyes of the baseball world upon it, the franchise is again in a state of flux" (GUARDIAN, 7/10).
NO SHOW: In Miami, Douglas Hanks reports Michael Hernandez, the Senior Advisor to Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, accused Samson of "'pettiness' Sunday over the speaking plan for the dedication of a youth baseball field that was part of the All-Star Game festivities." Hernández said that Samson "declined a request for Hernández to speak on behalf of the mayor at a Sunday morning ribbon cutting for a county ball field designed for special-needs players and funded in a partnership with the county and the Marlins." Hernández added that Samson "redid the speaking program to eliminate remarks from the mayor’s office" after Gimenez had to cancel plans to attend the ceremony (MIAMI HERALD, 7/10).
