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Aaron Award winner Stanton does TV turn
Marlins star to Kimmel: I’d be OK joining Dodgers
Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter has not met yet with face of the franchise/ potential NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton.
At least, that’s the case according to Stanton, who appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday night.
The mostly lighthearted interview on the late-night show actually contained a few interesting baseball tidbits, including Stanton saying he plans to meet with the Marlins’ new bosses soon and suggesting he wouldn’t mind a trade to the Dodgers.
“We’re going to get together after the World Series,” Stanton said. “Everything stays quiet until then.”
That was the start of a busy couple of days for Stanton, who on Wednesday was named the winner of the 2017 NL Hank Aaron Award, presented to the most outstanding offensive player in each league as determined by a panel of seven Hall of Famers (and a fan vote).
On the show, Kimmel mentioned the rumors that the Marlins — who despite a franchise-record payroll finished with two fewer wins in 2017 than 2016 — are planning to drastically cut payroll and rebuild, calling the idea “crazy.” Stanton agreed that it’s hard to wrap his head around.
“It does seem crazy, because that’s all I’ve known my whole career,” Stanton said.
Kimmel noted that Stanton would look good in a Mets uniform.
“I like beating up on the Mets,” Stanton said.
How about the Dodgers as a destination for the Los Angeles-area native?
“I grew up a Dodgers fan, so if that’s where they want to go …” Stanton said, trailing off with a shrug of the shoulders.
Stanton also said he’d be willing to be a designated hitter for an American League team.
Regarding his torrid season — including leading everybody in homers (59) and RBI (132) — Stanton correctly recalled that he hit 18 homers in August.
“That was unreal. I had to do everything the same,” Stanton said. “I had to make sure OK, if I didn’t hit one in two days, [don’t] erase what I’m doing and do something else. … I had to do the exactly the same thing. Wearing the same underwear, wearing the same socks.” But did he wash them? “It just depends,” Stanton said. “On the climate, on a few other things.”
Stanton laughed along with Kimmel’s joke that finishing one shy of 60 homers “is a failure, in a way.”
“Oh man. I wanted it, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t think of it as a failure, but everyone is like, ‘60 is everything, 60 is everything,’ ” Stanton said. “At the end of the day, I failed.”
Stanton, Ozuna honored
In addition to Stanton receiving the Aaron Award, he and fellow Marlins corner outfielder Marcell Ozuna were named to the Sporting News’ NL All-Star team Wednesday. The Sporting News’ NL and AL All-Star teams, which were first created in 1925, are voted on by a panel of 43 executives. Catcher J.T. Realmuto and center fielder Christian Yelich also received votes at their respective positions.
For the Aaron Award, Stanton beat out several of the players he’ll be competing with for the NL MVP honor, including Paul
Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks, Charlie
Blackmon of the Rockies and Joey Votto of the Reds.
The NL MVP Award, voted on by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, will be announced in mid-November. The Aaron Award winners — including Astros second baseman Jose Altuve in the AL — were decided by Hank Aaron, Roberto Alomar, Johnny Bench, Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey Jr., Eddie Murray and Robin Yount.
Stanton slashed .281/.376/.631 this season while playing in a careerhigh 159 games and posting the gaudy homer and RBI totals.
Manager Don Mattingly last month called Ozuna the team’s MVP for his consistency throughout the season. He had a .312/.376/.548 slash line with career bests in home runs (37), RBI (124), runs (93) and doubles (30).