Stanton’s available, but which teams are willing to pay him

Derek Jeter now owns the Miami franchise but that hasn’t changed the fact that they’re the Marlins. No matter who owns the Marlins it seems they are doomed to do one of two things. Part of the time they make outlandish offers to acquire or retain talent. The rest of the time they desperately try to unload the contracts they awarded during their most recent period of largesse.

The Marlins recently informed the other 29 clubs that they’re anxious to trade Giancarlo Stanton. Yes, the player who banged 59 homers and drove in 132 runs and is likely to be crowned National League Most Valuable Player is on the trading block. According to published reports a few teams are interested and one of those teams is the Phillies.

The Phillies are almost certainly in a position to make the kind of deal that would satisfy the Marlins. They could put together the package of promising low-cost players that Miami would want and they could probably do it without giving up

Rhys Hoskins or Nick Williams. It is possible that they could have Stanton, Hoskins and Williams in the middle of their lineup for years to come.

That thought should make any Phillies fan drool.

Well, almost any Phillies fan. The team’s comptroller might not be drooling. He might be choking.

Stanton made $14.5 million last year. Next year he’ll make $25 million. And that’s only the beginning. His Marlins contract guarantees him $285 million over the next 10 years. That breaks down to slightly more than $1 million per week during the next 10 baseball seasons. If the Phillies trade for him that contract will become their obligation.

Yes, they can afford it. Yes, as long as Stanton is an RBI machine and possesses one of the finest throwing arms in game he isn’t overpaid at that price.

But, how long will he be that kind of player? Probably not for the next 10 years.

Stanton will be 28 next year, which means he’ll be 37 when the contract

expires. By that time he probably will have become a heavy drain on the budget of whatever team owns that contract and inhibit that team’s ability to bid on other players and field a competitive club.

The Phillies — or any other team that considers acquiring Stanton — will need to weigh these factors before making up its mind.

Yogi Berra once remarked that “ninety percent of baseball is half mental.”

I thought of that of that remark on Wednesday after learning of the tragic death of pitching great Roy “Doc” Halladay in an aviation accident.

In 2001, Halladay, then with the Blue Jays, looked like another firstround bust as he struggled through his fourth straight mediocre season. That’s when his wife, Brandy, presented him with a book by Harvey Dorfman entitled, “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching.” Halladay read the book, then contacted Dorfman personally. The half of the game that’s 90 percent mental suddenly kicked in and Halladay became a dominant pitcher, first for the Blue Jays and then for the Phillies.

Over the next 10 years Halladay won two Cy Young Awards and made eight All-Star teams. He won 20 games three times and pitched 220 innings or more eight times.

He seems to be a shooin for the Hall of Fame. Sadly, he won’t be present to enjoy his induction. If he had, I’m sure he would have mentioned Harvey Dorfman in his induction speech.

Major League Baseball appears to have a different set of standards when it comes to player behavior and owner behavior.

The Astros’ Yuli Gurriel has been given a five-game suspension as punishment for the racist taunt he delivered to Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish after his home run in Game Two of the World Series. Gurriel later issued what seemed to be a sincere apology but the suspension stands.

I think that’s right. Gurriel’s actions were ugly and should not be tolerated.

That leads me to wonder when somebody in Cleveland is going to be suspended for displaying that disgusting “Chief Wahoo” logo on the team’s uniforms. To my knowledge no one has even apologized for that.