Conspiracy Theories: Jose Fernandez

With the Cardinals picking up Jedd Gyorko this morning (a move I really liked, but I’ll get into that later), it got my mind running through reason to make the trade. Sure Gyorko would make a great utility player and be able to give Kolten Wong, Matt Carpenter, and Jhonny Peralta the occasional day off, but I think there is more to this than we know right now.

While the Cardinals are busy working on the team, the Florida Miami Marlins are busy denying interest in trading their ace Jose Fernandez. Well, there is a mystery team trying to pry Fernandez from South Florida; could it be the Cardinals?

The Marlins want a haul for Fernandez, both from the majors and minors. What if the team were to put a deal together with Kolten Wong as the centerpiece? They’d definitely have to add more than just the second baseman.

I’m guessing they’d want one of our outfielders – either Randal Grichuk or Stephen Piscotty. That makes a deal tougher since they just dealt away Jon Jay. But if this move happens in parallel to signing Jason Heyward, it’s a lot more plausible to see the trade happening.

So we could say the package starts with Wong and Piscotty. We’d have to add one of our pitching prospect; it’s a guarantee that they’d ask for Alex Reyes. I think the team would push back to a secondary guy; I could see Marco Gonzales or Tim Cooney being included, possibly both. It would still take another prospect or 2 to get the deal done.

So, we figure Wong, Piscotty, Gonzales and 2 other prospects for 3 years of Fernandez.

Fernandez would definitely be a huge splash for the team and wouldn’t take the monetary commitment they were willing to go to for David Price; he’d be a nice addition to the front of the rotation with Adam Wainwright and Carlos Martinez. This would also allow them to spend the money on both Heyward and another potential bat.

This move would be a new strategy for Mozeliak; he hasn’t typically been willing to deal away multiple pieces of the future for a player. But then again, he hasn’t been willing to offer almost $200M to a pitcher and he’s already done that this winter.

I’m not saying this move is happening; it’s just speculation based off rumors coming in. The Cardinals have been said to be the bottleneck keeping moves from happening in Nashville and this would be the splash everyone is waiting for.

Breaking Down the Gyorko/Jay Trade
This moves makes sense from both sides; the Padres went for it last year and it didn’t work out, so they’ve started moving pieces out. Gyorko is owed $33M over the next 4 years (the Padres are chipping in $7.5M); based off his performance this past season, they wanted to cut bait. Gyorko can play any infield spot and could see a little time in the outfield corners for the Cardinals; he could also be a platoon partner for Wong, if the team feels he’s not going to be able to hit lefties.

Jay was a crucial part of the Cardinals success since he was called up; while he’s not an everyday player, he’s a serviceable 4th outfielder that has a decent bat. He won’t show much power and his defense is on the decline. He’s probably going to share time in center with Melvin Upton.

Eugene is also a writer and podcaster for Nyrdcast, where he talks pop culture; you can also find him on Twitter or email him here.

  • MrKentL December 8, 2015, 12:40 pm

    Not sure why the Marlins would be interested in Wong when they have Dee Gordon, who seems to be coming into his own in Miami.

    • Eugene Tierney December 8, 2015, 1:07 pm

      Gordon has been on the trading block himself, if they can’t work out an extension. He was also a shortstop coming up and was moved to second by the Dodgers; they could look into moving him back there. Like I said, the likelihood of a deal is slim, but we’ve seen crazier things happen at the winter meetings.

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