Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes spoke up about the massive fire sale trade that sent him and four teammates from the Miami Marlins to Toronto last November, sharing a detail that can only leave Marlins fans fuming.
Two days before the team shipped Reyes, pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck, and utility man Emilio Bonifacio to the Blue Jays, Reyes ate dinner with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, who suggested Reyes plant roots in South Florida.
"He always told me to get a nice house in Miami," Reyes told CBS Sports this week. "I was at a dinner with him in New York, and he was still talking about the house. Two days later, I got traded." He said the news of the trade was so shocking initially that he thought someone was playing a joke on him.
This revelation complicates the popularly-held perception that Loria had planned a salary dump as early as last summer, when the team traded third-baseman Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Taking Reyes' story into account, either Loria has an unbelievable poker face, or he did not think he would actually be able to pull off the kind of fire sale trade that would justify shipping four former All-Stars out of town for a package of prospects and role players.
But Reyes said he does not see the need to confront Loria about the house comment. "Why do I need to talk to them?" he said. "They don't want me there. I don't need to see [Loria]. He traded me. It's all good."
On the other hand, Reyes was sympathetic to Marlins fans, as well as former teammate Giancarlo Stanton, who expressed extreme displeasure on Twitter after news of the Reyes trade broke. "I feel sorry for the fan base in Miami," he said.
As for Stanton, Reyes said, "He's an unbelievably great player. I feel sorry for him."
Just when you thought Loria's image in South Florida could not get any worse, new information comes to light that makes him seem even more calculating than before.
Marlins' Stanton Mum on Fire Sale
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