Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Brushing aside talk
Players not focused on reports team shopped
“I’m curious to know what’s going togoon— when it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen.” A.J. Ramos, Marlins reliever
A.J. Ramos knows this routine by now. Someone somewhere in the Miami Marlins’ chain of command does something unusual or otherwise newsworthy, and the players have to answer questions about it.
This time, it was news — breaking less than a week before spring training begins and about 24 hours before the team’s media luncheon — that owner Jeffrey Loria has a tentative deal to sell the team.
“I’ve come to expect things like this,” said Ramos, the Marlins’ All-Star closer. “I feel like there’s always something that comes out, always something we’re going to have to talk about. Every year I kind of wait. ‘OK, what’s it going to be this year?’
“So I’m always prepared with the general answers. ‘Well, I know as much as you know. We’ll see whenever you see.’ I got those for days. Keep asking those questions, I’m going to keep giving those answers.”
That was the general sentiment from Marlins players Friday afternoon at Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, where the team hosted a kickoff for its annual “Day of Impact” full of community outreach. They’re just employees, they said. They still have to do their jobs on the field. They know only what’s out there publicly. A couple of Marlins even asked what the latest rumors were.
Multiple reports Thursday said Loria had a preliminary agreement to sell the Marlins for $1.6 billion to an unidentified New York City-based real estate developer, and that multiple parties are interested in buying the team.
The New York Times reported that
Joshua Kushner — younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw and senior adviser — is leading a family bid to buy the Marlins, “devising a complicated financial arrangement that would include bringing in partners later.”
The Times also said the Kushners have balked at the $1.6 billion price tag. Neither Jared Kushner nor his father Charles Kushner, the convicted felon who was reported Thursday to be a part of a potential deal, are involved, according to the Times.
The Marlins have not addressed the reports. Club president David Samson declined comment Thursday and was not present at Friday’s luncheon. He had a previously scheduled outof-town speaking commitment, a team spokesman said.
Because of the Kushner reports, Trump became a topic of conversation between Marlins players and reporters Friday afternoon. Could Ramos imagine the president tweeting about Marlins games from the Oval Office?
“Yeah,” Ramos said before pausing and laughing. “I don’t want to comment. I got some jokes, but I don’t want to comment.”
Right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, whose historic and backloaded 13-year, $325 million contract was interpreted by some as a sign that Loria might not be long for Miami, drew the largest crowd of the dozen or so players present. He was less than pleased with being repeatedly asked about the Loria buzz.
“We got any good stuff or is all nonsense off the field?” Stanton said.
Ramos said he’d miss Loria’s jokes if he sells the team, adding that he has “nothing bad to say about the guy.” Dee Gordon, who received from Loria a gaudy pennant to commemorate his 2015 batting title, said he would be sad to see Loria go.
“He was good to me and my family,” Gordon said. “I don’t know what’s going on at this point, but I just know that I’m focused to help my team win in ’17, and as a group that’s all we can do.”
There is, of course, a natural degree of curiosity about where Loria and the team stand. Ramos said he has been getting tons of messages from family and friends asking what the deal is and whether he’ll stay with the Marlins.
“I’m waiting — like [everyone else] — for the club to respond to it and say exactly what’s going on. I’m like you guys, I want to know,” said Ramos, who is under team control through the 2018 season. “I’m curious to know what’s going to go on — when it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen.
“All I’ll say is we play for the guys in the locker room. These are the guys that have my back. … We can’t control [whether] the team is sold or not, so we’re going to play the best game that we can, get the best product out there and see what happens after that.”