Dan Haren reportedly plans to attend Marlins spring training

Who would have figured one of the oddest stories of the baseball offseason would be determining where Dan Haren would pitch in 2015?

The latest in the I’ll-retire-before-pitching-in-Miami saga: Haren will reportedly attend Marlins’ spring training. He doesn’t necessarily plan to pitch for the Marlins, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, rather Haren’s hoping to report and get traded to a team closer to his SoCal family.

A show of good faith never hurt, right?

Haren, 34, was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Marlins along with Dee Gordon in December, even though Haren had said he’d rather retire than leave the West Coast, where his family lives. The Marlins have been looking into deals, but nothing’s stuck yet.

It’s just not the rights to Haren — who was 13-11 with a 4.02 ERA last season — that are in play here. The Dodgers also promised to pay his $10 million salary for 2015 and the Marlins are looking for a way to trade Haren but keep the $10 million. As Jackson writes:

The Marlins want to keep that money whether they retain Haren or not. So a team trading for Haren would need to pay his $10 million salary. If the Marlins trade Haren, that $10 million would be allocated toward paying Mat Latos’ projected $8.3 million salary.

The Marlins would gladly welcome Haren because they believe he’s still a quality big-league starter and would be effective in spacious Marlins Park.

And Haren has made clear to the Marlins that he believes they have a talented young team and that his desire to pitch on the West Coast is strictly family-driven.

We figure to hear more about this before the season starts, obviously — the most curious part being whether Haren will actually give up $10 million if he doesn’t get to pitch in his preferred locale.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz