The search lead them back to a familiar face, with the team deciding to hire Jack McKeon to try and straighten things out in the second half of the season.

It will be McKeon’s third stint as manager of the Marlins, and his two previous stops were both quite successful.

However, it remains to be seen whether the 80-year old skipper still has the energy to get after it every day.

The Marlins certainly have a ton of talent on their roster, but the team has just been absolutely dreadful in the month of June. 

The Florida Marlins got some good news on Thursday, as Mike Stanton returned to the field and promptly deposited two baseballs out of the park.

The 21-year-old slugger missed the first 24 games of the Grapefruit League season with a strained right leg muscle. Back in action Thursday, Stanton slugged two home runs and drove in seven runs in a 15-7 victory over Boston.

Stanton is one reason why Florida fans are optimistic 2011 will be a bounce-back campaign. The Marlins look to rebound from an 80-82 season, finishing 17 games behind division winner Philadelphia and six games in arrears of wild-card winner Atlanta.

Edwin Rodriguez takes the helm as full-time manager. Rodriguez took over when the team fired Fredi Gonzalez in June of last season. Gonzalez now is manager at division-rival Atlanta, which traded for Florida second baseman Dan Uggla in the offseason.

The Marlins open the season at home against the Mets on April 1, kicking off a six-game homestand that also brings the Nationals to South Florida.

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The Marlins are looking to keep some of their players and add others as they prepare to open up their new ballpark.

The team is hoping a competitive team and a new stadium will energize the fanbase and boost sluggish attendance numbers.

The Marlins now have a payroll around $55 million, which is about the same as it was last year.

Nolasco is 54-39 with a 4.45 ERA in five seasons with Florida. He also has the best strikeout to walk ratio in all of baseball over that time.

The Marlins have already had a busy offseason after trading away second baseman Dan Uggla and signing John Buck.

Vasquez struggled last year in the American League East with the New York Yankees, going 10-10 with a 5.32 ERA.

A return to the National League will likely help Vasquez, who has always pitched much better there.

Vasquez will join a very solid rotation anchored by pitchers Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez.

In exchange for Uggla, the Marlins acquired infielder Omar Infante and pitcher Mike Dunn from the Braves.

Uggla has been seeking a big contract and therefore been on the trade block for a couple of years now.

The surprise isn’t the fact that he was finally traded, but rather Florida’s partner in the move.

Teams typically don’t trade within the division, but neither club seemed to have a problem doing so in this instance.

Nolasco was initially set to miss the rest of the season until he and the team decided he could pitch through the injury.

It wasn’t nearly as severe as both parties initially thought it was, so they figured he could finish out the final month or so.

With the team out of the hunt for the playoffs, they decided it was best if Nolasco called it a season.

He said he felt discomfort in a recent start and is set to undergo surgery to repair the knee next week.

Andrew Miller filled in with a spot start for Nolasco, who everyone figured was likely done for the year.

Not so fast, as the team doesn’t think the knee injury is as serious as first though. Nolasco may actually make his next start.

The Marlins remain in the wild card hunt, although it would take a serious run and some help from those in front of them to really have a chance to reach the playoffs.

Nolasco has struggled at times this season but has pitched much better since the All-Star break.

The Rangers gave the Marlins two pitching prospects to acquire Cantu, whose numbers are down from last year.

Not only are Cantu’s numbers in decline, but the deal will save the Marlins some money as well.

The team is cash-strapped as it is and would like to be able to sign second baseman Dan Uggla to a long-term deal.

Cantu will be expected to play first base and could move over to third base on occasion to give Michael Young a day off.

Wes Helms’ bases-loaded single in the 11th inning game gave them their fourth walk-off win of the week, a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The win was the team’s seventh in its past 10 games.

The Marlins failed to plate a run from the fifth inning on, but the Braves couldn’t grab the lead despite loading the bases four times, including in the top of the 11th, allowing the Marlins to hang around until Helms’ heroics.Former Brave Jorge Sosa earned the win, pitching two scoreless innings, aided by an inning-ending double play against Nate McClouth.

Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla led off the 11th with singles, and Helms delivered after an intentional walk to Cody Ross, handing Jesse Chavez his second loss of the year. Helms finished the game 2-for-5 with three RBI.

Eric Hinske hit his eight home run in defeat for Atlanta.

The Marlins are always looking to dump salary, and Uggla can earn himself a nice contract any day now.

However, it looks like the Marlins might bring Uggla back next year despite the big salary.

The Marlins made an agreement with major league baseball that they would start spending more money to retain players.

By signing Uggla, Florida would throw a bone to the MLB that they are trying to be competitive.