Source: Yankees trade for Stanton
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees agreed Saturday to a trade with the Miami Marlins for Giancarlo
Stanton, the slugging outfielder and reigning National League most valuable player.
Stanton, 28, hit 59 home runs last season, the most in the major leagues since 2001. He is guaranteed $295 million through 2028 under the terms of the mammoth 13-year, $325 million deal he signed with the Marlins in 2014.
The deal was confirmed by a person in baseball with knowledge of the transaction, which will not be official until physicals are completed. In exchange for Stanton, the person said, the Yankees will surrender two modest prospects and second baseman
Starlin Castro. The Marlins, the person said, will also put about $30 million into the deal to offset some of what the Yankees will owe Stanton.
The deal means the Yankees will have the game’s two most intimidating sluggers, Stanton and
Aaron Judge, in the same lineup and may again become baseball’s marquee team.
All this came about because Stanton’s contract became too much for the financially struggling Marlins to bear. When a new ownership group, which includes former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, took over the Marlins franchise over the summer, it quickly concluded that the smart move would be to trade Stanton and get out from under the fiscal burden of his contract.
Initially, the Yankees, who came within one victory of reaching the World Series last season, were not considered a likely destination.
Stanton was believed to have met recently with representatives of the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals to facilitate a deal. But on Friday, those clubs announced that Stanton, who has a full no-trade clause, had vetoed their proposals.
Instead, it was believed that Stanton had narrowed the list of teams he was willing to play for to four — the Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs and the world champion Houston Astros.