The death of pitching ace Jose Fernandez in 2016 triggered a series of costly roster decisions that the Marlins’ new owners are having to contend with now.
There is no shortage of ‘what ifs’ with how it all played out.
But this much is clear: according to sources with knowledge of internal discussions at the time, a number of players with prohibitive salaries wouldn’t be on the Marlins now if previous owner Jeffrey Loria had listened to the advice of his top baseball people back then.
Absent a pitching ace in the wake of the Fernandez boating tragedy, the sentiment among many in baseball operations was that the Marlins would struggle to compete in 2017 and that a rebuild was the best path forward.