Giancarlo Stanton, who finished second in this year’s NL MVP voting and is two seasons away from free agency, appears poised to become the recipient of the richest contract in MLB history.
Here’s Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors:
The Marlins and Stanton are close to agreeing to terms on a 13-year, $325MM contract that is expected to contain a no-trade clause and an opt-out clause, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Count Matt Snyder, Heyman’s CBS colleague, as being very impressed with an owner with a less than stellar reputation across the sport:
Remember, [Jeffrey] Loria bought the Marlins before the 2003 season, watched the club win the World Series with a young core and blew it up as fast as he could. They haven’t sniffed the playoffs since, but Loria has made a ton of money and spent taxpayer dollars to get a new stadium built.
And ever since that Toronto deal [involving Mark Buehrle and Jose Reyes], it has seemed unlikely the Marlins would lock up Stanton long-term, and many big-market teams have been pestering them about a potential deal for the MVP-caliber youngster.
Even if Stanton was given a deal, I would have been skeptical without the no-trade clause. “Window dressing” would have been my immediate reaction along with a yawn. Surely the Marlins would have been signing Stanton just to show they aren’t averse to that before dealing him a few years later. After all, a long-term deal would increase his trade value, because the acquiring team would know how long they’d have him along with the dollar amount.
The no-trade clause, though, has me on the opposite end. This is a great deal for the Marlins and, more importantly, their fans. Forget the money (seriously, MLB teams wipe their figurative backsides with $25 million a season — and would you rather Stanton or Loria get that? C’mon). This is the Marlins saying for once that they are committing the franchise to a young superstar, like they didn’t do with [Miguel] Cabrera and others. They are telling Stanton he has no-trade protection, so he won’t have to vent on Twitter about being “pissed” again — at least when it comes to a trade.