Offishial News: Revisiting a massive win-win trade, 20 years later

[Ely Sussman]

On this day in 2005, the Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox finalized the following blockbuster trade:

• Red Sox acquire RHP Josh Beckett, 3B Mike Lowell and RHP Guillermo Mota
• Marlins acquire RHP Jesús Delgado, RHP Harvey García, SS Hanley Ramírez and RHP Aníbal Sánchez 

Just two years later, the Sox won a World Series title, and both Beckett and Lowell played pivotal roles along the way. The former finished runner-up in 2007 American League Cy Young Award voting and was named MVP of the ALCS, while the latter placed fifth in AL MVP voting and took home WS MVP honors. They combined to spend 12 seasons in Boston, accumulating 30.0 fWAR.

All four of the prospects that the Marlins received in exchange made MLB appearances for their new franchise. Ramírez immediately emerged as a brilliant offensive player en route to winning 2006 National League Rookie of the Year. He remains unequivocally the greatest shortstop that the Fish have ever had. Regardless of position, his 30.5 fWAR as a Marlin trails only Giancarlo Stanton (33.6 fWAR). Sánchez's tenure with the team also stretched from 2006-2012. He was a solid No. 3 starter.

Some of you may disagree with sticking the "win-win" label on this deal considering that the Marlins didn't have a single postseason berth to show for the Hanley/Aníbal era. They constructed particularly solid rosters in 2008 and 2009, but back then, there was only one wild-card spot available in each league. If today's postseason format with three wild-card spots was in place at the time, we would've likely seen October baseball in South Florida.

On Sunday in winter ball, Deyvison De Los Santos (Dominican Republic) went 1-for-4 with a sacrifice fly. Jared Serna (Mexico) went 2-for-4 with a triple double. Serna leads LMP with 45 hits and ranks second with a .995 OPS.

Only 122 days away from Marlins Opening Day.

🔷 Freddy Tarnok signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Nippon Professional Baseball's Hiroshima Carp. It surprised me when the Marlins waived him earlier this offseason, but that makes sense now. Tarnok presumably requested his release in order to pursue this opportunity in Japan, which guarantees him nearly doubled what his MLB salary would've been in 2026.

🔷 The Marlins concluded their 2025 First-Year Player Camp last week. Wilfredo Lara won the camp's MVP award, Wilson Weber was the American MVP and Yohanfer Santana was the strength and conditioning MVP.

🔷 Louis Addeo-Weiss presented the statistical case for Cole Hamels to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

🔷 Continuing their series of World Baseball Classic-inspired national team rosters, Son Los Marlins constructed the best possible Cuban team comprised of former Fish (en español).

🔷 Happy 25th birthday to Josh White. A new addition to the Marlins 40-man roster, White has spent his entire professional career with the organization. Through four minor league seasons, he has posted a 2.97 ERA, 31.7 K% and .205 BAA in 203.1 IP (124 G/14 GS).

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the New York Mets and Texas Rangers agreed to a bad contract swap, exchanging Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien (with the Mets sending an additional $5 million to Texas). Both veterans are still solid everyday players, but they've clearly entered the decline phase of their careers. Nimmo was a pest against the Marlins throughout the past decade (.260/.368/.475 slash line with 17 home runs and six stolen bases in 118 games). However, I believe the Mets got the better end of the deal. Semien will bolster their leaky infield defense and he's signed for only three more years (Nimmo is signed for five more). In free agency, the Atlanta Braves inked Joel Payamps to a one-year, $2.25 million contract.

View full article

[Jose Herrera]

Hanley was awesome and I'm happy we got him, but if we could have held on Josh Beckett that would have been amazing. Paring him with Josh Johnson would have been insane.

That Cuban team is interesting too. I did not know Nick Fortes was Cuban. That was nice seeing Jose, Livan and Alex as the starters.

-Happy birthday Josh!

[Robert Hanson]

In 2008, the Marlins finished 84-77, which was the 8th best record in the 16 team National League (Astros were still in the N.L.). Unfortunately, they would not have made the playoffs under the current format. The N.L. had 9 teams with winning records that year.

   In 2009, the Marlins finished 87-75, which was the 6th best record in the N.L. Under the current format they would have made the playoffs. 
    The Marlins had just 2 quality starters in 2009, Josh Johnson & Ricky Nolasco. They had 2 really good pinch hitters that year, Wes Helms & Ross Gload, that won them multiple games.

  2008-2009 were the Hanley, Uggla, Cantù, Cody Ross, Josh Johnson, Nolasco years.