The Miami Marlins were terrible last season, but that doesn't mean they will be trading their number one slugger this winter as many have speculated, as the new general manager of the team told reporters that Stanton is not available and that he will be playing next season with Miami in South Florida.
Stanton is considered to be one of the best young sluggers in baseball and last season he hit 24 home runs despite missing time with injuries. According to ESPN.com, Marlins general manager Dan Jennings said that despite the fact that team finished in last place in the National League and the NL East, there are no plans to trade Stanton, even though media reports have had him going to the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Texas Rangers among other teams. Jennings said that while he knows it will be tough, the team plans on building around Stanton for the long term.
The Marlins have one of the best young players in the game in Stanton, who while just 23 has already put up impressive numbers, including in 2012 when he had nearly 40 home runs and hit almost .300 while playing in 123 games and driving in 86 runs as well with 30 doubles. Stanton is developing into one of the top power hitters in the game and he had 34 home runs in 2011 after putting up 22 as a rookie and now he is being looked at as the centerpiece for the Marlins. Since the team is terrible he has come up in trade rumors, but none of those are thought to have ever been serious from the Marlins side.
Stanton only hit .249 last season while dealing with injuries and while he has only played four seasons, he has made his name known in the league. Stanton will likely continue to come up in trade rumors due to the fact that the team is terrible and also after they had that wholesale trade with Jose Reyes to the Toronto Blue Jays before last season, but it appears that Stanton will be in South Florida for the time being. The team has changed up its baseball organization once again this offseason and they ended up with triple digit losses as the worst team in the National League and they have been doing the backwards progress route of having more losses than in the previous season in each of the past four years. During that time the team has finished last in the division three times.
