That would be the first step anyway.  Several teams will have already hired managers--probably the Cubs as well.  If the Marlins don't find any takers and Loria really does have serious issues with Girardi, then he'll fire him.

I still think Girardi is managing the Marlins next season because it's doubtful any team is willing to give up a player for a manager who has managed one year.  I think Loria plays this out long enough that he's stuck with Girardi.

Miller was told by his doctor and Hendry knew that this season would be a difficult one and that it would be a long haul for him to get to 100%.  Hendry has admitted this.  Hendry didn't tell us that because he didn't want us to know.

Wood had the same surgery and has, himself, stated that he knew it would likely be a long season and that setbacks were possible.  Again, Hendry knew this and did nothing about it.

Prior's holiday sickness should have been reason enough for Hendry to plan to move forward without him, but he didn't.  Furthermore, Prior's injury was reported early in Spring Training by Will Carroll and although the Cubs brass denied this, it's obvious Carroll was reporting the truth.  

I wish it was mere miscalculation on Hendry's part.  That's something that you would expect to have as a random occurrence.  Not all things a GM is going to do is going to turn out, but some should.

In this case, Hendry failed miserably with knowledge of Wood and Miller's unlikely success in the 2006 season and counted on a guy who looked miserably the 2nd half of 2005, spent 2 weeks in the hospital over the holidays, and clearly had shoulder issues at the very beginning of Spring Training.  

This is a case of mismanagement bordering on negligence in my opinion.  

The injury to Lee could not have been predicted, but a regression to the mean should have been.  Hendry did nothing to protect the Cubs offense for what he should have known would have been a less stellar season for Lee.  John Mabry was answer enough for a back-up role to Jim Hendry.

The sad thing about this is that none of this is new.  It's not like this is the first season Hendry has mismanaged this team.  It happened to almost the same extend the previous season and Hendry's response was signing Neifi Perez and Glendon Rusch to multi-year deals before November 15th.  And doing this when Rusch had a player option he would have been silly to decline.  Even worse, he signed both these guys, right off the bat I remind you, to 2-year deals.  

Hendry did first what he should have done last.  Save your money for your most needed spots and fill in with the left over money after you FIX what's wrong.  Hendry filled out the roster and left himself with less money to do what he would have liked to have done.  

This was indeed a terrible team to start the season.  Even IF HEALTHY, this is a team that's not significantly better than it has been.  They're probably 10 games under .500 as opposed to 22 games.  MAYBE that much of an improvement.  

Now, if IF HEALTHY means production from Prior like August/September of 2003 and 2005 production from Derrek Lee with 2004 production from Aramis Ramirez and a better season from Maddux as well as a 2003-like season from Woody, then I'd agree it's a team that was better than the Marlins.  It may have even been good enough to be in Wild Card contention this season.  However, you just can't count on that.  None of it.  Prior is not and never really has been the pitcher he was down the stretch in '03.  Woody has NEVER been able to stay healthy.  Derrek Lee was a .270ish hitter before his career season last year and Maddux was in decline.  Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano were really the only 2 players you could expect similar production from.  

I doubt contracts can done as quickly as that, but it's possible.

My guess is that the contract was mostly done and agreed upon before the season began and then once the lawyers got ahold of it, it slowed it down.  

Add 5 or 6 top pitching talents that are close to MLB ready and you increase your odds that they succeed.  I generally base what I said previously on the average farm system.  Pitchers are very strange creatures.  It's the most inconsistent performance on the field.  Each season really represents a small sample size and in the minor leagues, that already small sample size is even smaller from one year to the next.  

This is the reason I'm sure you've noticed that one pitcher can have one hell of a minor league season and then not be that good the following season.  

I didn't really take a look a the talent the Marlins got in return in their trades except those the Cubs sent, but I'd guess that each of them had been fairly consistent among other minor league pitchers.  It was less hit and miss than the average prospect.

For what it's worth, despite my total dislike for Juan Pierre (I'll admit I really liked the addition when it happened--I thought he'd be a catalyst for this team), the Cubs did not give up much talent to get him.  Regardless of what's been said or written or what Nolasco has done this season, he's a pitcher with a low ceiling who put up mediocre stats at the minor league level.  It's possible he "turned the corner" but it is unlikely.  It's more likely he's been helped by the pitcher's park he pitches in and that the league is unfamiliar with him.  Also, there's probably been quite a bit of luck to go along with his success.  

In the end, this deal will only look bad in that these players could have gotten the Cubs a player that had more value than Pierre.