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Marlins send Adeiny Hechavarria to Rays as MLB trade season begins

Mike Oz

The worst-kept trade secret in baseball is reportedly now a done deal: The Miami Marlins are sending shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria north to the Tampa Bay Rays, a sign that baseball’s trade season has started and the Marlins are among the sellers.

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The trade has been talked about since Friday, when Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported that the Marlins were looking for suitors for Hechavarria, a 28-year-old from Cuba who is great with his glove but not so much with his bat. He’s hitting .277 this season, though, which is better than his career .255 average.

Now, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, the deal sending Hechavarria to the Rays is done pending standard medical evaluations, with the Rays sending back two prospects:

The Marlins are trading shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to the Rays. (AP)
The Marlins are trading shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to the Rays. (AP)

This is mostly about saving money for the Marlins — who are paying Hechavarria $4.35 million this season — and getting back a couple of prospects who could help down the road. Hechavarria is arbitration-eligible after the season and hits free agency in 2019.

The bigger message is that the Marlins (34-40) are open for business, and that could mean more deals are coming. Players who have been mentioned as available include starting pitcher Tom Koehler, relievers Brad Ziegler and David Phelps and perhaps even closer A.J. Ramos.

The Marlins up-in-the-air ownership could hinder them from moving bigger stars such as Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich, according to MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro.

We haven’t even hit July yet, when baseball trades start to heat up, but many teams are already trying to figure out whether they’re buyers or sellers. The Marlins could be joined by the Mets, Tigers and others soon enough. Other teams, like the Kansas City Royals, are proving to be more complicated.

Kansas City is 37-37 entering play this week with a number of pending free agents on its roster who could be great trade bait. Now that the selling has started, the Royals don’t have too long to figure out where they stand.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!