The Marlins Gave Who A What Now?

Exciting news for Florida Marlins fans today: The Marlins signed Hanley Ramirez, their best player - and arguably the best young hitter in baseball - to a contract in the neighborhood of 6-years and $70 Million.

That's right - The Florida Marlins actually locked up one of their good players for the foreseeable future. This is the most excited I've been about Florida signing someone since Jeff Conine signed a one-day contract to retire as a Marlin. Hanley originally came over in the deal that sent away Josh Beckett.

Ramirez is pretty excited about the deal:

When reporters approached Ramirez before Saturday's game against Washington, he smiled, laughed and waved.

"No comment, no comment," he said.

Boy it feels good to be a Marlins fan. Not only are the Marlins currently in first place in the NL East - with one of the best records in baseball - but they signed their best player for the first time in... ever.

This is especially encouraging after an off season that featured the trade that sent away the faces of the franchise, Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera. When that trade happened I was a little sad as Cabrera was one the top-5 hitters in all of baseball as well as one of my favorite players.

Willis, on the other hand, was already a "meh" for me as he seems destined to continue down the Hideo Nomo Trail to mediocrity. As he put muscle on his frame it became hard for him to continue with his once-effective throwing motion. After a good rookie season that coincided with the 2003 Championship and a tremendous 2005 season (22-10, 2.63 ERA, 5 shutouts) Willis began to lose it.

Last season Willis went 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA and he struggled early this year before getting injured. Oh, well. That's how the Florida Marlins do. We win championships and then sell off our formerly beloved players for young players that in turn will also someday be loved and eventually traded away.

At least that's how it used to be! Hanley Ramirez is now officially a real, live, honest-to-Jeffrey-Loria, Marlin until 2014! Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. And who knows - the next long-term Marlin could have come over for Dontrelle Willis' rotting corpse. At least now we know what it feels like.