Jose Fernandez’s death “turning point” for Miami Marlins

Former Miami Marlins star Christian Yelich attributes the breaking up of the young, promising team to the untimely death of Jose Fernandez.

The Miami Marlins; a team once full of promise and potential, is now shattered and broken.  What could have been for the Marlins and their array of talent — featuring the likes of Jose Fernandez, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcel Ozuna, and Christian Yelich. It’s likely the lone “survivor” J.T. Realmuto will be gone before the All-Star break arrives.

Why would the new ownership breakup a team capable of competing for a World Series title within the next few years? What started this unlikely chain of events? Most would say the Giancarlo Stanton trade to the New York Yankees, however, that was act two of the beginning of the Marlins’ end.

A late September day made the MLB world stand still, where it’s most promising young pitcher died tragically in a boating accident at the young age of 24. The death of Jose Fernandez started a chain of events leading to a “restructure” of the Marlins personnel.

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Yelich admits as much in a recent interview with ESPN, of the impact the loss of Fernandez had on the players and organization as a whole.

“We went through that rebuild, and we were so close. We had all the pieces. If a few things break differently, you never know how things turn out. I think a lot of the guys feel that way. We were really close and had a chance to do something special with that group.”

Now, the Marlins are going through another rebuild, one they may never recover from in the future. The former Marlins’ outfielder is spot on; they had something truly special in South Beach. Even though the young array of talent never reached the MLB postseason, they were knocking on the door of reaching the promised land — even without the talents of the departed Fernandez.

However, the damage was done with the loss of Fernandez. To be fair, how can those players recover from such loss? If they had the appropriate support from their ownership, they may have made it through this dark time and seen a bright future. However, the Marlins organization’s debt and poor management hammered down the nail on the coffin of hopes for this core of players.

Derek Jeter and the organization would do well to pay tribute to not only Fernandez but to the former team collectively. However, it’s also a double-edged sword of “what could have been” for the Miami Marlins.

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Now, with the Miami Marlins starting from ground zero, is there any hope for the future? Is there any glimmer of hope? At this point, the answer is a resounding no and it’s really sad. As a fan of the game as a whole, it’s a moment deserving of a moment of silence and it may take a while for us to get over it as well.