Why did the Marlins trade Luis Arraez to the Padres? Here’s what Peter Bendix had to say

The Miami Marlins on Saturday morning officially traded two-time batting champion and All-Star second baseman Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres for four prospects — right-handed pitcher Woo-Suk Go, infielder Nathan Martorella, outfielder Dillon Head and outfielder Jakob Marsee.

Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix spoke Saturday afternoon via Zoom to reporters for about 15 minutes discussing the trade and the future of the franchise. Here are the highlights from that interview session.

Last week, you said it wasn’t even May yet. What changed between then and now?

“We got an offer that we felt like we couldn’t walk past for the long-term benefit of the organization. The team’s record (9-25 entering Saturday’s game against the Oakland Athletics) is what it is right now. We’re very disappointed. I know the players are very disappointed. Everybody here is very disappointed about that. But it is also something that we can’t change right now. When we got this offer on Luis for a tremendous amount of young talent that we really think is going to be very helpful for us long term, it was just something we couldn’t walk past.”

How much did you take into account the impact this might have mentally on the players and coaching staff where it’s May and it almost seems like you’re giving up on the season?

“That was a tremendous consideration. The difficulty of a trade like this is magnified when it happens so early in the season. And Luis is such a great baseball player, but he’s an even better human, teammate, person in the clubhouse, all of those things. That just served to make this an even more difficult deal.”

What is the message to the players in the clubhouse?

“The message is to continue to work hard and there’s a lot of baseball left. That is something that is felt inside this clubhouse. There’s a bunch of professionals here. The players, the staff, everybody involved with this organization, they’re tremendous professionals that are going to work as hard as they can to put the players in position to succeed. Players are going to work as hard as they can to win games. I fully expect that we’re going to improve our record moving forward. And that’s something that’s going to be unchanged regardless of this trade.”

Is it safe to say this the start of a rebuild?

“I’m not gonna put any terminology on it. I think it’s consistent with the message that I’ve had since my time taking over the organization and baseball operations, which is that we have one eye on the future and one on the present, and our goal remains to build towards long-term sustainable success.

Arraez mentioned multiple times that he wanted to stay in Miami long-term, but nothing was ever formally discussed. Why did that never happen?

“It’s something that we have considered and it was part of the conversations — we have a lot of different conversations about how to handle a roster and how to handle a player like Luis. We never got to the point of having those conversations formally, but we did this right now given our our record so far this year, given kind of the state of our minor-league system, given our stated goals of developing this franchise into a sustainably successful team that’s winning 90-plus games year in and year out, that we had to make this difficult move. We knew that this was going to be a series of difficult decisions to get us to where we wanted to go. I wasn’t necessarily predicting that this would be the first of them, but that’s what happened just given where we are so far in the season.”

Why trade away a back-to-back batting champ? Would he not be affordable in the future?

“We got a lot of prospect talent in return because Luis is a back-to-back batting champion who’s a very good player, and that’s something that given where we are right now with this season is something that we determined it was better to set the franchise up moving forward, the long-term value of four prospects — three position players and one pitcher that we think have a chance to really impact major league team for six plus years of their control and who knows what else beyond that. We felt like there’s a right right move to make for the organization.”

So the move was going for something that might possibly happen rather than a player who you already know what he can do?

“That’s part of the calculation. It’s part of the value of the player for the rest of the season when unfortunately our record is what it is and the fact is that we’re unlikely to make the playoffs this year. Trading that for future value seems like the right thing for this organization right now.”

What examples of comparable trades did you go through to arrive at the decision to trade an established player like Arraez for four players with no MLB experience. The Marlins have done this a bunch of times and it always seems to fail them.

“I’m very confident in our analysis of these players and of really the player universe in general. We have a really strong group here that I think produces very strong analysis. Certainly no guarantee — there’s nothing guaranteed in baseball for any player — but we feel very confident in these four players that we’re getting in return that they can be a meaningful part of our future.”

What did Bruce Sherman have to say about the moves, especially since he loved Luis Arraez and you’re still paying most of Arraez’s salary using Sherman’s money to get the deal done?

“Bruce continues to provide the resources and the support that we need to execute our long-term vision. I think this is a very good example of that. The fact that Bruce was willing to support us contributing to Luis’ salary like you mentioned, it unlocked better prospects. We were able to invest in achieving better players in return than if we hadn’t been able to cover Luis’ salary. That was a really important component of this, of getting the best prospects that we possibly could if we were going to make a trade.”

On a human level, do you understand what Marlins fans have been through over the past three decades, how many times they’ve heard this same song and dance about prospects and then watching them get shipped elsewhere? What would you say to fans who feel betrayed, are going to see an inferior product and to the players in the clubhouse who now know that if you get an offer that’s too good to refuse, they’re gone?

“I completely understand the history of the Marlins organization. I haven’t been here as a part of it. I was for 15 years up the road north four hours and observed that from a distance. I was a fan of the Cleveland Indians in 1997 and observed what happened to the Marlins that won the World Series in ‘97 and then things were torn down afterwards. The mandate that I’ve been given, the vision that we have for this organization, is to never have that happen again, to get to the point where we are consistently competing year-in and year-out. That’s a very difficult goal to achieve. This is an extremely competitive industry and with a lot of very smart people trying to achieve the same thing, which is winning a World Series. In order to get this organization where it needs to be, to winning 90-plus games year-in and year-out, it’s difficult decisions like this.”

If you develop the next Luis Arraez, what confidence can Marlins fans have to fall in love with him and buy a jersey if they feel the player is just going to get traded away?

“I can’t really comment on things that might happen in the future. All I know is that we’re going to do our very best to get to the point where we’re winning 90-plus games year-in and year-out.”

You’ve mentioned multiple times getting to a point where the team is winning 90-plus games consistently. How far away is the team from that?

“It’s very difficult to put any kind of timeline on it, especially at this point in season. It is still very early on in the season. I understand that. It does make a deal like this more difficult, but it’s not any kind of thing where I can say this is any sort of definitive timeline. We’re committed to doing that as quickly as we can and also understand that it’s a process.”

Did you talk to Arraez after the trade and what was his reaction?

“I did talk to Luis. He’s such an incredible person. He very professional. I think he’s very disappointed, understandably so. He’s going to be very successful wherever he is. Great person, great human, great family. The fact that he’s such a wonderful person just makes this even more difficult.”