Cashner buried his beard after shaving it for Marlins

On the field, Andrew Cashner was probably excited about getting traded from the lowly San Diego Padres to the contending Miami Marlins at the trade deadline. Away from the pitcher's mound, though, the ramifications of this deal touched the right-hander in a very personal way.

Cashner was known for his long, bushy beard while with the Padres, one of the more distinctive looks in all of baseball. But when he arrived at Marlins Park, he was immediately informed by Marlins higher-ups of his new team's policy forbidding facial hair. While he complied with the policy, getting rid of his beard affected him deeply.

"I shaved it the next day," Cashner said, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. "It took a while. It's probably one of the saddest days I've ever had. It stinks, but what are you going to do?

"I don't like it. But what can you do? I hate shaving. I think my beard is a part of me as a person and who I am."

The 29-year-old was apparently so distraught over losing his beard that he ended up giving it a proper farewell.

"I buried it," revealed Cashner, the son of a mortuary worker.

For his first start in Marlins colors, at least, Cashner didn't take his grief to work, as he allowed just one earned run over six innings in one of his better starts of the year. He'll keep being a good soldier on the mound for the Marlins until season's end; once he reaches free agency in the winter, though, all bets are off. If his words are any indication, Cashner won't be back in Miami unless the team relaxes the rule.

"That'll be the nice thing about free agency, kind of choose a place that (allows facial hair)," Cashner said. "It's a big deal to me."