April Fools! 5 biggest Miami Marlins surprise flops
Happy April Fools, FanSiders. In that spirit, time to celebrate the five biggest surprise flops in Miami Marlins history.
Few teams can claim to have provided as much material for jokes from pundits, prognosticators, and baseball fans alike as the Miami Marlins.
To be fair, some of it has been warranted. At times, it has seemed as if the Marlins front office themselves has enjoyed pranking their own fans.
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Holding a ring ceremony in 1998, when everyone knew most of the players left to receive them were being traded later that season? Classic. Trading a bunch of those guys for Mike Piazza, only to trade him a week later? Comedy gold. Slashing payroll left and right the same year a new publicly-funded ballpark opened? Had them rolling on the floor.
The list goes on, from firesales, to prospect flops, to those empty seats ESPN loves to show. The club has been lampooned so much, the average baseball fan is just as familiar with them as the biggest Marlins diehard.
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On the other hand, only three teams have won more championships than Miami since they came into the league in 1993. So maybe folks should stop kicking.
So no, this is not going be a rundown of the greatest hits. No 1998 selloff. No second blowup of a championship core. No bemoaning why Miguel Cabrera isn’t still a Marlin. No trading of the reigning NL MVP and home run leader.
And no, not even any time spent wondering why Miami couldn’t have landed Keston Hiura instead of Lewis Brinson when they shipped Christian Yelich to Milwaukee.
Rightly or wrongly though, and I would say it has often been wrongly, the Fish have made themselves easy targets. Which means it is just as easy to forget how often there actually were expectations. Big expectations. Belief that the right move had been made, that things were finally on the right track. That it was all coming together. Be it free agent signing, trade, or prospect call up, times success seemed so close, and then so far.
High hopes (cue Panic!) in April, only to have them dashed before the season was even over.
In other words, times Miami Marlins fans were made April Fools.