Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Just when I had moved past the trade deadline and completely removed it from my thoughts, a report came out on Monday morning from MarlinManiac.com that revealed what is thought to be the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ trade offer to the Miami Marlins for Giancarlo Stanton.
Before I even dive into the rumored trade proposal, let me begin by saying I don’t believe the report at all. I don’t see any reason to believe that Pirates GM Neal Huntington would offer such a deal, and why the Marlins would turn it down.
Apparently an “unnamed source” told Marlin Maniac that the Pirates offered rookie pitcher Gerrit Cole, left fielder Starling Marte, top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon and pitching-prospect-turned-first-baseman-prospect Stetson Allie to the Marlins in exchange for Stanton, outfielder Justin Ruggiano and closer Steve Cishek.
The fact that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria would turn that down baffles me, even though he obviously didn’t want to move his franchise centerpiece.
While this deal would have brought a legitimate superstar in Stanton to the Pirates to pair with Andrew McCutchen, it also would have been insane in terms of trading away the franchise’s future left fielder and two potential aces. If I were Huntington, I would have been willing to deal away any prospects for Stanton if it made sense; no prospect would have been untouchable.
That means I would have been comfortable trading Taillon, Gregory Polanco, Alen Hanson, Nick Kingham or whoever else. I wouldn’t have traded more than three of them however, because that would be considered “mortgaging the future” and that is a critical mistake for a small-market team.
However, potentially trading away two high-upside players with so much talent like Marte and Cole would have been a huge mistake from the Pirates’ perspective.
