Could Armando Benitez be Packing His Bags for Miami?

On the same day that Fredi Gonzalez announced that Kevin Gregg would remain the closer of the Florida Marlins upon the return of one time closer Henry Owens from the DL, another wrinkle has been creased as it looks like Florida is on the verge of acquiring Armando Benitez from the San Francisco Giants.

General manager Brian Sabean said on his weekly KNBR radio program on Thursday that, "It's safe to say the bullpen is being reviewed," and that, "we've got to the point where we are going to have to do something, and hopefully within the next 24 or 48 hours we'll resolve it internally or externally. Right now we are exploring options."

After Benitez's complete meltdown at Shea Stadium on Tuesday, which included two balks which advanced the same runner, the Giants have reached their breaking point with Armando. His recent tirade against his teammates for making errors behind him has only served to make the Giants look for any excuse to dump him. Tuesday night was merely the final straw.

From a Marlins standpoint, not only has Armando played in Miami before, but he has been rumored to be returning there since spring training. And I'm very interested to see how much money the Giants eat for the pure sake of getting rid of him. I would think it would be a significant amount, because that's probably the only way the Marlins make this deal ... and it also justifies Gonzalez leaving Gregg in the closer role, because who would spend $7.6 million on a middle reliever? If the Marlins have to pay the bulk of that salary, they almost have to give Benitez the closer role to justify it. We saw with Jorge Julio how much of a disaster that line of thinking can be.

The funny part about the whole thing is that manager Bruce Bochy had said that Benitez needed to have fluid drained from his knee, and that he would be held out of Thursday's game, just as he was held out of Wednesday's save situation. It was easy to assume that Bochy didn't want to expose Benitez to the Shea Stadium fans again, who are still bitter about Benitez's time in New York. Now, it looks like Benitez could be making a handful more appearances against the Mets as a Marlin.

Update: It looks like the trade is official, as the Marlin who's going the other way is middle reliever Randy Messenger.

Previously on The Fanhouse:
Armando Benitez Throws His Teammates Under the Bus
Armando Benitez to Marlins Rumors Start in the Spring
Armando Benitez Rumors Continue
The Jorge Julio Era Ends Before it Begins

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