Derek Steinbrenner

Trading a reigning MVP doesn’t happen often—and if it does it comes with a price. Yesterday that changed.

The New York Yankees have traded for National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton. The Miami Marlins are going in a different direction from the previous management and we saw this front and center this week down in Miami. Friday afternoon, the Marlins trading their starting All-Star Second Baseman Dee Gordon. Gordon’s 5-year $50 Million contract will now be on the books of the Seattle Mariners. This Marlins team wants to go cheap and build from the inside and try to make a dynasty similar to what their new owner Derek Jeter went through early in his career with the Yankees.

And, that is exactly what Jeter has done in his short tenure with the Marlins. In two days Jeter has been able to shed Stanton’s $325 Million contract and that $50 Million. That’s almost $400 Million coming off the books for the Marlins.

If I was a Marlin fan, I would be jumping for joy because my team would be liberated from a bunch of bad contracts. The Marlins will not only be able to pick 1^st in next year’s draft, as well as gearing up for the next big free agent class. The modern sports culture wants to win immediately instead of building a culture and building something for the long term.

Jeter’s overall perception right now is not the highest because he gave away the best two players on the team and is trying to paint a glorious masterpiece like the Houston Astros just did when they put the finishing touches on their painting with a World Series victory this past October. So, Miami Marlin fans just sit back and be the worst team in Major League Baseball for a couple of years and build something that will build a fanbase down in South Beach that will build up that Marlin fanbase like Jeter did in the mid-90’s with the Yankees.

Yes, this trade may seem as a handout for the Yankees because Jeter was associated with this trade that sent a guy who has the ability to hit 50 bombs a year, but it wasn’t up to Jeter. Stanton had all the control in this situation and this might be a pardoning shot for Jeter. If you know anything about the Yankees since Derek Jeter retired—you know that Jeter hasn’t been associated with the Yankees since he walked off the field in 2014. The only time Jeter came back was to get his number retired. He was not hanging out on East 161^st Street and coming back every time he could. Jeter just went to live his life away from baseball and enjoy his retirement. Jeter is not the same person as the Yankee Legend that retired in 2014. He is a business man that needs to make the Marlins a profitable franchise. He lived through the last good run of George Steinbrenner and he knows what it takes to become an entertainment business.

Jeter is not pigeonholing himself in any corner right off the bat. He is building that aura around himself in the same way that George Steinbrenner did here in the Bronx. Being a Yankee fan when George Steinbrenner is like being a Game of Thrones fan right now; nobody was safe and there is a select few that are seen as “safe.” Billy Martin was fired and hired five times as Yankee manager. The rule under George Steinbrenner was an entertainment business like the Showtime Lakers. Derek Jeter’s Miami Marlins will be an entertainment business with a core group of players playing in the fan created cartoon box down in Miami in about six years. That seems like a long way away, but let me but this into perspective, six years from now Giancarlo Stanton will be 34-years-old and coming off a season where he could make $32 Million if he doesn’t opt out in 2020.

It doesn’t seem like it now but, Derek Jeter dodged a major bullet getting rid of Stanton’s contract. Even if Stanton wins three more MVP’s over the next five years, it wouldn’t have made a difference on a team like the Miami Marlins that can barely get over 75 wins. While Stanton will be racking up MVP trophies and endorsements while the organization would be dragged to the depths of the earth by that $325 Million contract.

If you have a Stanton Marlin jersey or you are a Marlins fan—celebrate the times that you had and let Stanton go hit bombs in New York. It is for the betterment of the organization. This will not be a trade that will live in infamy. Derek Jeter is a big-time house flipper and he just got a beaten down shack and is turning it into his million-dollar mansion.

This is a rare deal that will work out for both teams (maybe). If the Yankees win a couple World Series with Stanton on roster than the trade is worth it. When the Marlins compete for the 2023 and 2024 World Series with guys who are high school right now—while Stanton will be icing his 34-year-old 6’6”, 245-pound body while be collecting $32 Million dollars. Jeter will seem like a genius; while the next Mike Francesa chews Brian Cashman’s ear off about “how bad this trade ended up being.” Baseball is a chess game in the offseason and front offices need to regroup and try to push for the next year and the Yankees are setting up a checkmate for the ages, while the Marlins are that quite chess player finetuning their game and getting ready to take the game by storm.