Earlier today, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan accused Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria of ordering rookie skipper Mike Redmond to flip the scheduled starts of Jose Fernandez and Ricky Nolasco in Tuesday’s doubleheader. If you’re wondering what difference it would make, Passan suggests Loria was attempting to curry favor by letting Fernandez start in warmer weather, while presumably, Loria has already given up on Nolasco, who recently requested a trade.
Reached for a reply by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, Loria — not hooked up to a polygraph at the time — denied Passan’s claims.
“I had nothing to do with the decision,” Loria said. “I was informed of the decision by the baseball department. I told them it was their call.
“I don’t make decisions on who to pitch and when, how to go about it — that’s not my role. Sometimes they call me and tell me what they’re doing. But I don’t call them up and say, ‘This is what is going to happen.’ That’s not true.”
Loria, an art dealer, said he was discussing his primary business at the time he received a call about the pitching changes from general manager Michael Hill.
“I was engaged in discussions in the world about pictures, as in paintings, not pitchers, guys who can or can’t paint the strike zone.”