The Miami Marlins had what you might call a bit of a crappy season. Even though they entered this year superexcited about their brand-new stadium, their brand-new $100 million payroll, their brand-new shortstop, their brand-new closer, their brand-new manager, and being featured on Showtime's The Franchise, things went south pretty quickly.
And now comes a USA Today report that says President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest will be getting the ax as soon as next week.
According to "two high-ranking officials" within the organization who are not allowed to speak of the situation, Beinfest will be canned and replaced by Dan Jennings, Marlins' assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel.
When asked by the Miami Herald for a comment, team owner Jeffery Loria said, "I never comment on any ridiculous and fabricated rumors."
And since we know Loria is a trustworthy fella who always tells the truth, we can pretty much assume the USA Today report is just pulling a fast one on everybody. Good one, USA Today!
Although the focus is on this year's monumental crapfest, the firing of Beinfest might be a long time coming. In 11 seasons, he's been unspectacular in personnel moves, particularly in his drafts, which have been huge failures as far as finding first-round talent is concerned, while teams like the Nationals and Cardinals have been able to draft the Bryce Harpers and Mike Trouts of the world.
And while Beinfest is limited in what he can and cannot do thanks to Loria's tight wallet, he hasn't been able to do much in the way of trades either -- the trading of 2012 triple crown favorite/AL MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera for Andrew Miller, Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz, Burke Badenhop, Cameron Maybin, and Mike Rabelo in 2007 comes to mind and makes one throw up in one's pants.
This year, the Marlins finally did spend, and the result was missing out on Cuban phenom Yoennis Cespedes (who went to Oakland) and Prince Fielder (who went to Detroit).
Oh, but we gave a 34-year-old closer a three-year, $27 million contract!
And the food at the stadium is the balls! So, you know, there's that.
As of now, Beinfest is the only name to emerge in a report as far as major changes are concerned. But more rumors will likely start to swirl soon.
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