Just like his monster home runs, Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton knows how to grab your attention. Even if it’s November.
With Major League Baseball’s offseason inching toward its busiest portion, rumors from the trade and free agency markets are beginning to fly, with Stanton right in the center of it all.
New ownership headed by New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter has taken over a franchise in Miami that is in need of a rebuild. The Marlins have not made the postseason since 2003, the year they beat the Yankees to win their second-ever World Series.
In fact, those two World Series-winning years of 1997 and ’03 are the only two times the 25-year-old franchise has ever been in the playoffs.
To spark the rebuild, Jeter and Co. would have to blow the team up, drastically cut their payroll and start from the beginning. In order to that, they have to get rid of Stanton’s enormous contract, via trade, that still has 10 years and $295 million remaining on it.
Coming off a 59-home-run, 132-RBI campaign that should end with a National League MVP award, big-market teams are likely salivating at the thought of bringing on Stanton’s big bat.
One of those teams interested is Jeter’s former club, the Yankees.
According to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, the Marlins made a preliminary inquiry to the Yankees about Stanton. Though Heyman isn’t ready to call them serious contenders for the 28-year-old as of yet:
The Yankees’ brief confab with the Marlins was initiated by Miami, and to this juncture has gone no further than a couple sentences spoken between the respective GMs, the Yankees’ Brian Cashman and Michael Hill of the Marlins.
Heyman noted that “at least eight teams” have been linked with Stanton, though two are already out after it was discovered that the star with a no-trade clause would not accept a deal to either the Boston Red Sox or St. Louis Cardinals.
The Yankees have the young talent that the Marlins would probably want in return if they are indeed going all in on a rebuild. New York has five of MLB.com‘s top-100 prospects, including infielder Gleyeber Torres, who is ranked No. 1.
Would the Yankees be willing to give him up for Stanton? That’s a steep price to pay given the promise he possesses.
But if there is some way the Yankees could pull the trigger, you are looking at a lineup that would contain two players with 50-plus home-run potential and another with 35-to-40:
What a Yankees lineup could look like with Giancarlo Stanton in 2018:
1. Jacob Ellsbury DH
2. Didi Gregorius SS
3. Aaron Judge RF
4. Giancarlo Stanton LF
5. Gary Sanchez C
6. Starlin Castro 2B
7. Greg Bird 1B
8. Aaron Hicks CF
9. Chase Headley 3B
