Marlins trade 3B Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers

In the off-season the Miami Marlins stole all the headlines. They dropped Florida and became Miami. Construction was completed on a new, expensive, retractable roof stadium. They unveiled a new look, debuting four new uni's, in this brilliant new stadium. Then came the spending. The Marlins lavished millions upon millions on free agents, attracting some of the biggest names available to South Beach. They signed Heath Bell, Mark Buehrle and Jose Reyes, among others. The latter forced the move of Hanley Ramirez to 3B, something he made very public he was not interested in. It was supposed to be a grand coming out party for the newly dubbed Miami Marlins. Instead things have gone terribly wrong.

Early Tuesday morning Ramirez was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with reliever Randy Chaote for SP Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer.

It's a shocking move, even amidst rumors teams were lining up to acquire the SS turned 3B.

The Dodgers made their own headlines early in the season when an ownership group, lead by Magic Johnson, purchased the team from Frank McCourt. The winning big was reported to be over $2 billion.

Surprisingly the Dodgers have had a good season, much of it in first place in the NL West. They've struggled recently falling 2.5 games back of rival their, state and division, rival San Francisco Giants.

The offense has been the Dodgers achilles heel all season ranking at or near the bottom is virtually every major offensive category.

The addition of Ramirez should help, although it didn't do the Marlins much good for the first 4 months of the season. The Marlins were among the worst offenses in baseball along with the Dodgers.

The Dodgers new ownership made it clear they were willing to spend money from the very beginning and now they've dropped a ton more cash. Ramirez is due $15.5 million in 2013 and $16 million in 2014. The Dodgers are assuming the entire contract with no financial remuneration from the Marlins.

It's a surprising turn of events involving two of the franchises who made some of the biggest splashes in the off-season. Many would have expected their records to be reversed and the Marlins the buyers and Dodgers the sellers at the deadline.

It's funny how the best laid plans often change once the games are played. Ramirez and Reyes on the left side of the Marlins infield looked as though it was a sure thing. Anything is far from sure in MLB. That much is definite.