Back in late July there were rumors swirling about the existence of an audio tape involving Miami Marlins' owner Jeffrey Loria and team president David Samson making offensive remarks about one of the team's players.
Well, Deadspin got their hands on the recording of this alleged conversation, but its veracity is largely in question and at this point the whole situation is being regarded as a hoax to displace Samson as the Marlins' president.
Let's start from the beginning.
Remember when the Marlins made a bizarre decision to demote outfielder Marcell Ozuna to Triple-A? After a career year in 2014, the 24-year-old Dominican has struggled to match his power numbers from a season ago. Miami sent him down in early July when he was batting just .249/.301/.337 with 4 home runs and 26 RBIs.
Read more about the puzzling decision in this comprehensive article written by Michael Jong of SB Nation.
However, it's perhaps a bit more evident as to why the move was made. If Ozuna spent over five weeks in the minors this season, the Marlins would save money. Ozuna would be under the league minimum for the 2016 season instead of being eligible for arbitration. He spent six weeks in the minors and at this point will not accrue enough service time to get a raise in the offseason.
This come as no surprise, since the Marlins executed a 13-player trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves earlier in the season to solely shed salary and acquire minor leaguers.
"They tell me you're going down for work, get your feeling back and you come back," Ozuna told the Miami Herald earlier this year. "I know what happened when they sent me down. I knew that's coming. I don't go there for work, because they know me. I don't need the work. One for 36, 1 for 100, every big-league player has it. I have it and everybody has it."
Anyway, the profane audio recording obtained by Deadspin is believed to be pertaining to Ozuna, who a male voice allegedly called a "fat, lazy, Dominican f-k." Deadspin went back and forth with the individual who provided them with the recording, but a lot didn't add up. First off, the person claimed the voice was that of Loria's, which former coworkers confirmed not to be the case (the coworkers said it sounded like Samson). Secondly, the person who provided Deadspin with the tape failed to respond when asked further questions about its origins. Lastly, the Miami New Times was given the same recording, only to experience the same circle of nonsense, misleading and lack of responses.
"It is absolutely not me," Samson told Deadspin. "It is a complete fake ... If I had said that, I would tell [Loria] and I would resign."
"I was in the room," Loria added. "That was not [Samson]. It sounds nothing like him."
Barry Petchesky, the Deadspin reporter, asked where the tape came from.
"I have no idea," Samson said. "Someone is trying to take me down."
Per Petechesky:
"Samson said he wasn't even in Miami when Ozuna was sent down, but was rather in St. Louis for a funeral; that the female voice on the tape 'is not anyone who works for me'; and that he wouldn't have spoken with Scott Boras anyway. He and Boras, Samson said, have been on bad terms for a decade. A source familiar with the two's relationship confirms that the two don't talk, and says the enmity dates back to Ivan Rodriguez's contract negotiations, and an alleged comment made by Samson that Boras took as a personal and out-of-bounds attack on the catcher."
What's also puzzling about the recording is that it didn't surface until the end of July, which was over three weeks after Ozuna was demoted to Triple-A.
"The first mention of its existence came on July 30, the very day that Boras first complained about Ozuna's status to the Miami Herald," adds Petchesky. "It was also one week after ESPN parted ways with Colin Cowherd for his remarks disparaging Dominicans-a tortured analogy that began as an attempt to make a point about a Marlins front-office move. If the tape is a hoax, and you're looking for its creators' inspirations, you don't have to look beyond that week's headlines."
Could this be the work of a disgruntled Marlins fan trying to get Samson fired? It's no secret the fan base - as well as others around the MLB - is disgusted with the team's ownership and management. The Marlins last made the playoffs in 2003, and although they won the World Series that year, the seasons that followed have been atrocious. Miami is 901-1,014 over that span and have had eight different managers since.
The 2015 season has especially been a disaster. Loria fired manager Mike Redmond after 38 games and replaced him with general manager Dan Jennings. Loria and Jennings are now said to have a rocky relationship due to the unsuccessful campaign this season and the team is in the midst of reshuffling almost the entire organization - from the dugout to the front office and beyond.
Whatever the case, the surfacing of this tape and everything else behind it is all too peculiar, especially since the Miami New Times and Deadspin had to pull teeth only to receive less and less credible information.
