With Miami Marlins’ slugger Giancarlo Stanton recently clearing waivers and rumors of him being on the trade market surfacing, should the Phillies make a push for the right-handed slugger?
Since Ryan Howard’s dominance in the late 2000s, the Philadelphia Phillies haven’t had a player with the power that Giancarlo Stanton currently has. In fact, the team may have had only other right-handed hitter with this much power in the history of the franchise, Hall-of-Fame third baseman Michael Jack Schmidt.
There’s no question that Stanton is one of the most dynamic players in baseball right now, but he might be the best power hitter in baseball as he currently leads the majors with 44 home runs.
But with the Miami Marlins in the midst of a change of ownership, the team could look to start fresh and getting as much of Stanton’s contract off the books as possible could be something the team wants to pursue.
At the end of this season, Stanton is still owed $310 million for the remainder of the contract, which is simply too much for a small baseball market like Miami.
In any potential trade scenario, no team is going to take on the entirety of his remaining money because even a player like Stanton isn’t worth that kind of money.
Even with the Marlins taking on a portion of his remaining money, there are still a few teams with the money and assets to get into the conversation. The Phillies are one of those teams.
Matt Klentak has done an excellent job getting rid of the team’s long-term contracts while handing out short-term deals to the free agents he does choose to bring in. The player with a guaranteed salary for next season is Odubel Herrera and he is only set to make $3.35 million.
The Phillies have more than enough money to take on around 75% of Stanton’s remaining contract and still go after a superstar free agent the end of the 2018 season.
Team President John Montgomery has also been known to be willing to spend the necessary money to help the team win, and from everything he’s said throughout this season he sounds like a man prepared to make a big splash in the near future.
The team also has plenty of prospects in the minor leagues that they would be willing to move in a potential trade. Any player in the minor leagues not named J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery and Sixto Sanchez should be available.
The only deterrent from a potential Stanton to the Phillies deal would be how many prospects they would be willing to part with and the quality of those prospects.
Here’s what my offer to the Marlins would be:
This deal is a win-win scenario for both teams.
The Marlins will get all but 25% of Stanton’s enormous deal off the books and will receive several high-end prospects and a good major league player as well.
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Hernandez has proven to be one of the better leadoff hitters in the National League. His high on base percentage is valuable to any team.
Miami already has Dee Gordon at second base, but both he and Hernandez have experience playing shortstop and the team could slide one of the two over. The Marlins could also look to turn around Gordon for more prospects and move forward with the more cost-controlled Hernandez for the future.
The Marlins will also receive two potential Major League outfielders in Moniak and Haseley.
While Moniak has shown to be an excellent contact hitter, he still needs to work on adding muscle to his frame and showing more signs of power. But he was still the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft for a reason and is considered one of the best outfield prospects in baseball.
Kilome is likely the piece the Phils are least eager to part with in this deal as many of the pitchers in the upper ranks of the system have yet to pan out and he has continued to show promise in Single-A. But he has the potential to become a front-end starter and could end up being the best piece the Marlins receive in this deal.
Anderson is the more safe addition for the Marlins as he doesn’t have the best stuff, but has shown this season in Double-A that he has good command and is able to pitch to contact.
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As for the Phillies, there is no reason to complain about this deal.
Yes, the team is parting with three of its 10 best prospects, according to MLBPipeline. But, the Phillies already have three established young outfielders on the big league club in Herrera, Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams. And with the addition of Stanton, the Phils could have one of the best offensive outfields in the NL.
Although Stanton recently cleared revocable trade waivers and could be moved before the August 31 deadline, don’t expect a deal like this to go down until this offseason at the earliest.
The new Marlins ownership needs to decide what kind of direction they want to take for the future, and if Stanton is in their long-term plans for success.
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But if the time comes where the Marlins decide that they would like to move on from their superstar slugger and build for the future, the Phillies should be one of the first teams to make an offer.