Marlins would move Josh Johnson?

John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus says that he thinks that the Marlins would trade the young pitcher Josh Johnson “right now” for the right price.

“Keep hearing #Marlins are very willing to trade Josh Johnson right now for the right package,” he tweeted.

Why would this be? He’s one of the best young power pitchers in the game and is only 25-years old. Any team trading for him would have him for two years. This is much more attractive to a lot of teams who think one year and $15.75 million for Roy Halladay isn’t enough to part with the farm. It’s probably because the Marlins know they won’t be able to afford him when the time comes to re-sign him.

This happens in baseball way too often and it’s why it is such a flawed system. You can only cultivate young talent to a point, because eventually if you bring them along properly, they get too good for you to afford. Why did the Twins have to trade Johan Santana? Wouldn’t Cleveland want to keep a pitcher the caliber of CC Sabathia? Of course, but it’s just not financially possible when you have teams like the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Phillies who have deeper pockets and will pay huge amounts of money for these guys.

Baseball needs a salary cap, the system needs to change.