ROSEMONT, Illinois — Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins’ maverick owner, reported to the Major League Baseball owners’ meetings looking and sounding cantankerous.
“Not today, boys,” Loria told a group of reporters as he entered the meetings at an O’Hare Airport hotel. “If you guys haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not going to figure it out for you.”
But it was hardly just a pack of journalists left perplexed by the massive trade between Loria’s club and the Blue Jays that would send Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes and two other players to Toronto for seven players. The trade provided the juice to these otherwise tame meetings, creating a great deal of consternation. As of late yesterday, the players in the deal were still undergoing physicals and the trade therefore had not yet been submitted to commissioner Bud Selig — who had heard the grumbling from many owners — for his approval.
Loria, according to one industry source, sat alone in the lunch room, not conversing with his fellow owners. Teams from the American League East were unhappy that the Blue Jays improved dramatically, clubs from the National League Central and West were displeased that the four other NL East members would be able to feast on the carcass posing as the Marlins and there was a general sense of embarrassment over the Marlins cutting bait just one year after opening a new ballpark built overwhelmingly with public monies.
In a separate interview with CBSSports.com, Loria alluded to the team’s last-place finish and said, “We have to take a new course.”
In the past, the Yankees — the biggest donor to baseball’s revenue-sharing program — have grumbled when the recipients have cut their payrolls. The Marlins were publicly chided by MLB and the Players Association in January 2010 for not spending enough on player talent and promised to increase their expenditures. Now they have gutted their payroll once again.
But Yankees president Randy Levine, the highest-ranking team official in attendance because of the absence of managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, passed on the opportunity to rip the Marlins.
“There’s a collective bargaining agreement. As far as I understand, everyone’s following the rules,” Levine said. “Teams are allowed to do what they want to do.”
The Mets, represented here by CEO Fred Wilpon and COO Jeff Wilpon, declined comment, but they had to be thrilled. The NL East just became easier, and whatever the Mets’ problems are, they pale in comparison to those of the Marlins.