GOING, GOING . . .
Miami will have little choice but to trade home-run leader, no matter how many he hits
It doesn’t matter how many more homers Giancarlo Stanton hits this season, they’re likely his last with the Marlins,
The San Francisco Giants recently called, and privately informed the Miami Marlins of their interest. The St. Louis Cardinals have called. So too have the Texas Rangers. The Philadelphia Phillies didn’t want to be left out, either. They all have one thing in mind. They want Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton and, while it’s not realistic now, it could be by the start of the 2018 season.
Stanton, who passed through waivers without a sniff a few weeks ago, suddenly has a captive audience. He hit his 50th home run of the season Sunday, reaching the mark earlier than any player since Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in 2001.
The 27-year-old Stanton entered Monday hitting .296 with 50 homers, 108 RBIs and a 1.059 OPS. He has 29 homers in his last 46 games, and is putting on a show we haven’t seen since the days of Bonds.
Despite his exploits, no team has informed the Marlins they would be willing to pay the remainder of Stanton’s entire salary, a cool $295-million over the next 10 years beginning in 2018.
But finally, the Marlins say, teams are calling, with the Giants expressing the strongest interest, according to a high-ranking Marlins’ executive.
The Marlins, of course, have done enough boneheaded things to alienate a fanbase — from wild fire sales to impulsive firings to idiotic hirings to nonsensical promotions. Yet, not even the Marlins, who will be sold as soon as their season ends to a group led by Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman, are stupid enough to trade Stanton now.
You don’t let a man walk out the door when he has the chance to become only the sixth player in history to hit 60 home runs, and the first not linked to performance-enhancing drugs to eclipse Roger Maris’s 61-homer mark.
You don’t trade a man who is carrying a franchise on his back, hitting .402 with 17 homers and a 1.046 OPS in his last 23 games. Only Babe Ruth and Bonds had a higher OPS in August.
You don’t get rid of a money-making machine with 17 home games remaining in the schedule, not when you have a chance to slash the projected $90-million debt this season with every swing of Stanton’s bat.
Stanton is the sixth player to hit 50 homers before September. He has led the Marlins into the National League wild-card race — Miami started Monday 41⁄ games out of a
2 playoff spit — and he could become the first player in franchise history to win the NL MVP award.
“He’s locked in right now in a way that people may think is extraordinary,” Marlins president David Samson said, “but for me, I view it as ordinary. This is the Giancarlo who we know. He wants to be the best . . . if he stays healthy, you’re talking about the first Marlins’ Hall of Famer, in my mind.
“That’s what we thought about when we signed him, but who knows what tomorrow brings?”
Exactly. Stanton will be wearing a Marlins’ uniform right up until their season finale on Oct. 1, or longer if they happen to make the playoffs. And he’ll never put it on again.
The Marlins, with Jeter running the show once the sale closes, will trade Stanton. The Marlins simply have no choice. This is a franchise already with more than $400 million in debt. They can’t be viable economically with a player whose salary jumps from $14.5 million to $25 million in 2018, escalates to $32 million, and doesn’t stop until 2028.
Oh, and forget that opt-out clause in 2020. No one walks away from seven years and $218 million.
The Marlins, who want to keep their payroll around $100 million, simply can’t have one-third of their payroll tied into one player.
Jeter certainly understands Stanton’s trade value may never be higher. And although the Marlins may still have to subsidize at least $75 million of his contract, they will rid themselves of a huge financial burden, and get a few prospects back in return.
The Cardinals have the money and the prospects, but Stanton also has complete no-trade rights. His preference would be the Dodgers. He grew up in the Los Angeles area and lives there during the off-season. But the Dodgers have vowed to shed payroll.
You can count out the Yankees, who also are trying to drop below the $196 million salary cap next year. The Cubs have enough stars. There’s no room in the Red Sox outfield. He has already been through enough rebuilding years not to stomach another few in Philadelphia.
The ideal match is the Giants, who not only are desperate for a slugger, but a marquee star, with their sellout skein of 530 consecutive games ending this summer.
But, for now, let’s sit back and enjoy the show. Let’s see if Stanton can hit two more home runs this month and break Rudy York’s record of 18 homers in August of 1937; hit 12 more homers to pass Maris; or even continue this crazy tear and produce a 70-homer season.
When it’s all over, and he puts away his bats for the winter, we can watch Stanton establish yet another record.
He will become the first player in baseball history to be traded immediately following a 60-homer season.