J.T. Realmuto‘s agent announced on Tuesday that the catcher will not sign a contract extension with the Marlins:

Berry reasoned similarly to how I did when projecting the 2019 payroll: if the player won’t re-sign, then the team should deal him now while he’s at peak value and health so they can get maximum return for him.

The Marlins seem quite happy to trade players who don’t want to be on the team, as we saw with Christian Yelich last season. There were some who felt the Marlins did not get a very good haul for their trade chips, but part of that was telegraphing the fact that the team needed to reduce payroll. There is no such pressure this season. Realmuto is an excellent player at an important position, and teams should pay to dollar. The Marlins could wait until the July trade deadline to get the best deal if they don’t get the package they desire. If Miami does not get an excellent set of prospects in this transaction, something is wrong in the front office for real.