MARLINS MEMORIES: A big day for Big G
Remembering the contract many thought would change the Marlins forever
Life comes at you fast.
Anyone who has followed the Marlins for any length of time knows the franchise’s history is full of starts and stops, moments that seemed history-altering at the time that ultimately became little more than footnotes in the club’s annals.
Maybe the most dramatic example was the spending spree that preceded the opening of Marlins Park in 2012. The arrival of free agents Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell was expected to transform the franchise. A year later, they were all gone, leaving nothing but the bitter aftertaste of a 93-loss last-place season that led to the next Marlins fire sale.
As the Marlins begin what they hope will be a new era with Peter Bendix now at the helm of baseball operations, I was reminded this week of another one of those moments that seemed like it might change the trajectory of the franchise forever but today is remembered as just another blip along the way.
It was 9 years ago this week that 25-year-old Giancarlo Stanton signed what, at the time, was the largest contract in North American sports history.
13 years and $325 million.
Little did anyone know that day that less than 3 years later the club would be sold to Bruce Sherman and the move that would jump start Sherman’s welcome-to-Miami fire sale was a trade that sent Stanton, only weeks removed from being named the National League’s Most Valuable Player after a 59-homer, 132-RBI season, to the New York Yankees.
Still, a deep dive back to that fall day in 2014 is like entering a time machine. The promise of what lay ahead for the Marlins seemed limitless. Heading into his 3rd year as manager, Mike Redmond had Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna in the outfield alongside Stanton. He had Jose Fernandez working his way back from Tommy John surgery. He had Henderson Alvarez in his rotation and Steve Cishek locking down the 9th. Elite prospects J.T. Realmuto and Andrew Heaney had just had their first big league cups of coffee in 2014, and there was talk that the winter could see president of baseball operations Michael Hill and general manager Dan Jennings bring a big bat like first baseman Adam LaRoche or a veteran arm like James Shields to Miami.
It was amid all of this excitement that the Marlins and Stanton shocked the baseball world with agreement on this record-breaking contract.
And that night I produced and hosted a 2-hour Marlins Hot Stove radio special devoted exclusively to the Stanton signing. I recently stumbled on the recording and wanted to share it.
The show features fascinating interviews with, among others, Stanton, Jennings, Cishek and Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine. We listened back to various highlights of Stanton’s career up to that point and pondered the club’s short- and long-term future through the lens of that day with fans chiming in via social media and the phone lines. And at the end, I even replayed the interview I did with Stanton on June 8, 2010, hours before he made his big league debut at the age of 20 in Philadelphia.
It’s a great trip down memory lane and, as I said earlier, it really feels like you’ve entered a time machine when you listen.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying putting it together 9 years ago this week.
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There was so much hope at that time!