I’m sure most of us remember November 17th, 2014 pretty well. On this day, the Miami Marlins signed star outfielder Giancarlo Stanton to a 13-year $325 million contract, the richest in Major League Baseball History.
As we enter 2016, Stanton still has 11 years left on that deal, and well over $300 million left. The Marlins haven’t had much success since giving Stanton the mega deal, as they have won 148 games while losing 176. Since getting the deal, Stanton has appeared in 67% of the Marlins 324 games, and he knows that he and the Marlins are out of excuses now.
Per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro:
“We’ve gone through every excuse in the book — [we’re] young, new people, this and that,” Stanton said. “There’s no more time for that. We have our core. We have our set lineup. Just about everyone was here from last year, except the coaching staff. We’ve got to put it together, man.”
…
“If you don’t have it inside [the clubhouse], it’s not going to come together between the lines,” Stanton said.
The Marlins have brought in a well recognized coaching staff for the 2016 that features Don Mattingly as the manager and MLB’s all-time home run leader Barry Bonds as the team’s hitting coach.
If we take a look around the Marlins infield the names that stand out are Justin Bour and Dee Gordon. The Marlins have an outfield that is one of MLB’s best in Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, and Stanton. The Marlins brought in Wei-Yin Chen to help out Jose Frenandez in the rotation, but they still need more consistency there.
Keep your eye out on Miami this year.
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