Giancarlo Stanton Rumors: Marlins Hope To Lock Up Stanton By Winter Meetings

Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

Giancarlo Stanton will be the subject of numerous MLB rumors this off-season. The Miami Marlins are hoping to lock up him to a long term contract well before that speculation heats up.

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Every single team in baseball will at least put a call in to the Miami Marlins this winter to see what it would take to acquire Giancarlo Stanton. They have no choice considering what an incredible talent Stanton is and the fact that the Marlins will be unlikely to keep him in the long term.

That said, the Marlins insist that they are not going to trade Stanton and that their priority is to sign him to an extension. On Sunday, Miami’s President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill provided a more specific goal for Stanton and the Marlins.

Hill says that the Marlins want to have Stanton locked up a long-term deal before next month’s winter meetings.

One can hardly blame the Marlins for that goal. If Stanton is not locked up, the Miami front office will spend the entirety of the winter meetings fending off teams that are trying to trade for Stanton.

Given Stanton’s ridiculous production and what he would hypothetically get on the open market, it seems unlikely that the Marlins will be able to pull this off. They would probably have to talk Stanton into taking some form of a discount, something he has little incentive to do as a 24-year-old right-handed power hitter who posted a .288/.395/.555 slash line last season with 37 home runs and 105 RBI.

Stanton will be a free agent after the 2017 season as things stand now, but one way or another, that is likely to change.

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