Bleacher Bums Forum

True, nothing the Marlins do ever makes sense.  For example, they're apparently trying to trade Logan Morrison:

The Marlins aren’t done yet. One day after agreeing to a blockbuster trade with the Blue Jays, they’re shopping outfielder/first baseman Logan Morrison, according to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post (on Twitter). Furthermore, several general managers expect Ricky Nolasco to be traded as well.

Morrison makes the major league minimum, finally has his natural position (1B) open in Miami, and is coming off a bad year which has crushed his trade value.  It makes less than no sense to trade him--sending him away right now would be actively working against the Marlins' best interests.  At least if they traded Stanton, they could argue that his value is greater now than it'll be in 2 years when he starts to get really expensive. 

I had a lot of interest in Morrison last year before the Cubs got Rizzo, but now I'm not sure he's worth it.  He'd be a nice buy low opportunity if they're not asking for too much.  But he's only an option at 1B and LF--they're not moving Rizzo out of the way for Morrison, so that would require moving Soriano.  If they did that, the lineup would then be devoid of proven RH HR power, and Castro would be the only RH hitter you could count on getting anything out of.  I guess the Cubs are going to lose a lot so that doesn't matter all that much...but games vs. LHP would be really ugly next year if Castillo doesn't develop.

I'm assuming Nolasco is going to be a salary dump and taking his full salary would make it easier to acquire Morrison.  So I'd have some moderate interest in a Nolasco/Morrison package.  Nolasco is intriguing to me because he always underperforms his peripherals--that makes me think he might be someone who could really benefit from a change of scenery and a fresh coaching voice.  He has also turned into a pretty strong ground ball pitcher the last two years, so he may benefit from the Cubs' positioning strategies.  At the very least, he's a reasonably cheap (in trade cost) innings eater with 1 year left on his contract who could gain value by midseason.