Marlins Hope To Keep Giancarlo Stanton In Miami For Years To Come
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins are in the midst of an impressive run at the postseason, especially considering the horrid 100-loss campaign they went on in 2013.
Leading the way for the Marlins is MVP candidate Giancarlo Stanton. The 24-year-old slugger is having his best season as a professional, leading the National League with 37 homers and 105 RBIs as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Marlins (71-72) have made several moves over the last couple years to build the team that is just 3 ½ games back of a wild card berth with 19 games to go.
There is still work to be done but the team knows that they are on the verge of being a serious contender, with a solid combination of young talent and veteran leadership.
The biggest key to the future in Miami is Stanton, and the Marlins front office knows this well. They have Stanton locked up through the 2016 season but the team is hoping to sign him to an extension well before his current contract is up.
Stanton has been clear that he wants to play for a winning team. While the Marlins are proving that they are ready to win now, they will still have some convincing to do if they want to get a commitment from Stanton for the rest of the decade and perhaps, beyond.
The Marlins are going to do what they can during the offseason to show Stanton that staying in Miami will be the best career move he could make.
In an interview with USA Today, Stanton said that once the season is over he will be more than willing to listen to what the Marlins have to say about signing a long-term deal. He wants to hear what the team plans to do about keeping Miami a contending team for years to come.
You can't blame the guy for being skeptical considering the Marlins history of dismantling teams to save money and they're going to have to sincerely change their ways if they want to keep the best young hitter in baseball playing in South Florida.
It's pretty obvious that whenever and wherever Stanton signs his next deal, it's going to make him a very rich man. Expectations are that he will become the first player in MLB history to sign a $300 million contract.
The Marlins appear ready and willing to shell out that kind of dough for Stanton, but they'll first have to convince him that he's not the only player they're going to throw money at.
With young stars like Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, Adeiny Hechavarria, Jose Fernandez, Nathan Eovaldi, Henderson Alvarez, Jarred Cosart and Steve Cishek, the foundation is there to build a very good baseball team.
By adding veterans like Casey McGehee, Garrett Jones, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Bryan Morris, look how much the Marlins have accomplished this season, and that's while losing their best pitcher for the majority of the season.
The future in Miami can be very bright, more so than most teams in baseball, but that will hinge upon if the Marlins can get Stanton to sign on the dotted line sometime in the next year or two.
Should that happen, the days of consistent mediocrity at Marlins Park could be a thing of the past.
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