By Blaidd Drwg

Way back in January, after a spending binge, I wrote a scathing article and my prediction for the future of the Florida Miami Marlins. As a refresher, here is what I wrote:

My prediction is the circus in South Florida yields a .500 team this season and they are breaking the team up by June of next year.

I think I was harsher than most people on the future of the Marlins; most people predicted them to be a contender for the playoffs. Now that the season is over, I find myself thinking I was overly optimistic – the Marlins managed a stellar 69-93 record, traded Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez and ultimately fired Ozzie Guillen. They then kicked-off the hot stove league by dealing Heath Bell to Arizona. I wasn’t as far off as I could have been.

I also wrote this nugget of wisdom:

It gets really ugly in 2014 for the Marlins. On top of the salaries above, their 2 best pitchers, Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, are both free agents in 2014, Hanley Ramirez is scheduled to make 16 million and their stud first baseman, Mike Stanton, is eligible for arbitration. Just counting Reyes, Buehrle, Bell and Ramirez, the team is on the hook for 59 million in payroll. Heck, for 2013, the Marlins are projected to be somewhere between 125 and 145 million for payroll, which I don’t think is going to happen. I think we are going to see a repeat of a disturbing trend that has been there since the beginning in South Florida – owner bumps up the payroll to a long term unsustainable level to make a World Series run, sells off the players returning the team to mediocrity and then sell the team.

Flash forward to Wednesday and you have this come across the wire:

The Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a multiple-player trade that would send shortstop Jose Reyes and pitcher Josh Johnson to Toronto, sources told ESPN. Also going to Toronto would be pitcher Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck and infielder-outfielder Emilio Bonifacio.

So, the Marlins have just basically reduced their payroll from about 125 million in 2013 to about 35 million. Sure as hell sounds like history repeating itself. The Marlins are receiving a bunch of prospects (most of whom are at least 2-3 years from having a shot at making the big club), noted bigot SS Yunel Escobar and spare part catcher in Jeff Mathis back from the Jays, and, as far as I can tell, the Jays are assuming all of the salaries they are acquiring. You think Albert Pujols is glad he didn’t sign with the Marlins now?

Lost in all of this is Giancarlo Stanton, the lone remaining Marlins player with any real talent. He is a little put out by this move:

“Alright, I’m pissed off!!! Plain & Simple,” Stanton tweeted.

I have a feeling that Stanton will not be sticking around beyond 2013 since he is then arbitration eligible and will be in line for a big payday.

My favorite quote to come out of this was from douchebag Marlins GM Larry Beinfest:

“We’ve kind of lost our Marlins way,” president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said less than two weeks ago. “The real Marlins way was we always outperformed our challenges. Whatever our challenges were, whether it was playing in a football stadium or weather or a lack of fans, or lack of revenue for that matter, we always found a way to outperform our challenges.”

What he really means is: “The Marlins way is to be as cheap as possible and not actually care about the team or the city, despite the good folks of Miami giving us a shiny 400 million dollar ballpark on their dime.”

Actually, this isn’t so much the Marlins way as the Beinfest/Loria way. In case you are unaware, Jeff Loria was the owner of the Montreal Expos who basically ran the team into the ground so that he could get a huge payout from MLB, oh and a shiny new team in Miami.