If the front office has it way, there will be no fire sale of the arbitration eligible Marlins.
Whatever the Marlins do this offseason, it won't be a rebuild, at least not from the front office's standpoint.
Speaking before Wednesday's 9-4 win over the Nationals, President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest said he doesn't subscribe to the concept.---
In his estimation, the way to go about that in 2009 is to keep the pitching, shore up the defense and reduce the strikeouts. Considering the Marlins have 17 players eligible for arbitration and likely won't have a dramatically higher payroll in 2009, achieving those goals means personnel changes.
Of course, there is what the front office of baseball operations wants to do and once Loria sets the budget, what they can do
Loria has been known in the past to expand the payroll, should he think that the Marlins have a chance at winning. But I wouldn't count of it this time.
The Marlins are making inroads at procuring a new stadium, but nothing is written in stone, just yet. Until a new stadium is a done deal, I don't expect the Marlins will expand the payroll significantly. In other words, all 17 players won't be returning, and some shouldn't. However, until we know the "magical" number of dollars to be spent, it is impossible to guess the situation accurately.