Cubs interested in Giancarlo Stanton

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors by dmick89107 Comments

Nick Cafardo says the Cubs are one of many teams interested in acquiring the Marlins 22 year old superstar.

1. Giancarlo Stanton, RF, Marlins — It would be a coup for whichever of the 25 teams (I’m exaggerating) that would or have bid for him to actually acquire him. But commissioner Bud Selig is watching the Marlins closely after the salary dump in the Blue Jays deal. While Selig did not step in to change or block that trade, he may not look too fondly upon a deal for the Marlins’ biggest draw. Teams would have to give their very best to the Marlins for baseball’s best young slugger. The Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, Cubs, and many more are inquiring, according to a major league source.

If Stanton is available, and that's a big if, of course the Cubs are interested. Along with every other team in baseball.

But let's dream for a moment and pretend the Cubs are only one of a few teams interested and that the Marlins are desparate the shed the salary of someone making the major league minimum. Are you dreaming yet?

He has a career .383 wOBA and only just finished his age 22 season. He has already totaled over 13 fWAR and 12 rWAR in 3 seasons in which he's been one of the youngest players in baseball. If he's not aready a superstar, he soon will be. Bill James projects he'll have a .403 wOBA next season.

Both UZR and DRS agree he's a well above average fielder too.

Are you dreaming now?

What would it take to acquire him?

You can forget about Javier Baez being enough to get it done. It's going to take a hell of a lot more than that. Stanton has one year in which he makes league minimum and then three years of arbitration. HIs surplus trade value is as high or higher than anybody in baseball.

I wouldn't really even know where to begin to estimate what it would take to acquire him, but I'd start with 3 of the top 5 Cubs prospects and then you can probably add on to that.

The Cubs would have a core that includes Starlin Castro, Anthony Rizzo and Stanton. All of them are very young and should only get better and better. It would probably be one of the best young cores of talent that I've seen an offense have in my life.

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  1. mb21

    @ dylanj:
    I think we do, but it is going to cost a shitload. Baez, Soler and Almora (have to get his approval to trade him) probably gets it most of the way there. Add in Brett Jackson or Josh Vitters.

    Or maybe Rizzo, Baez and Szczur (plus a midlevel guy). Not sure why the Marlins would want Rizzo since they’re trying to get rid of someone who is better and the same age though.

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  2. mb21

    @ JMan:
    I would think they’d not want him because of his contract. If they do want to trade Stanton, which to be honest, I find hard to believe, I don’t think they’d be interested in anyone with MLB experience.

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  3. JMan

    @ mb21:
    His contract is pretty cheap considering length and taking Castro’s age and ceiling. He is less risky than the other prospects and if he continues to improve he’ll become an even more valuable trade chip the Marlins can flip in a few years.
    But even if they didn’t want him I would have zero problem if the cubs wanted to trade any of the farm for Stanton.

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  4. mb21

    @ JMan:
    I agree. I’d trade anyone to get him.

    The reason I think they wouldn’t want Castro is because the Marlins could probably lock Stanton up to a similar deal. It might take a few more million, but he has only 3 years of arbitration compared to 4 for Castro.

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  5. EnricoPallazzo

    i don’t believe the marlins trade stanton. I don’t see what they gain. Unless you basically give your entire farm system to miami and even then i don’t think it’s worth it. I bet if you ask any farm director, he’d tell you that he’d give his left nut to know that he had one single player as good as stanton in his system.

    Also, would this deal even go through? Say stanton for baez, almora, vizcaino, everyone else, i gotta figure that selig vetos this. Actually, what veto power does selig have? I mean, i realize that he has absolute veto power but on what grounds can he veto a trade? To my understanding he can only veto a trade if it’s detrimental to the league as a whole but i have no clue what i’m talking about.

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  6. Berselius

    @ EnricoPallazzo:

    I think the only scenario where they trade Stanton would be if he holds out for a trade or something because he’s so pissed at the franchise. He’s already blasted management over that trade. And it’s not like they haven’t had problems with players before (see Logan Morrison).

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  7. Suburban kid

    Berselius wrote:

    I think the only scenario where they trade Stanton would be if he holds out for a trade or something because he’s so pissed at the franchise. He’s already continuously blasted management for being complete shit.

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  8. Berselius

    The Rays must have blackmail photos of Longoria or something. This is fucking ridiculous.

    Can’t wait for the Rant Sports article saying the Cubs don’t want to win because they don’t have a top 10 player signed for peanuts for the next decade.

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  9. mb21

    EnricoPallazzo wrote:

    i don’t believe the marlins trade stanton. I don’t see what they gain.

    I agree. It makes no sense whatsoever for them to trade a guy making league minimum this year and then followed by 3 arbitration years. Even the Marlins can afford that.

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  10. mb21

    @ Berselius:
    There you go. For some reason Longoria just doesn’t care about money and really wants to play in Tampa Bay. That’s the only thing I can think of. Does he have family there? A dying grandmother who raised him since he was a little boy? Is he not allowed to move out of Florida?

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  11. Rice Cube

    I think the injury issue likely suppressed the value of his contract and it was a combination of liking where he was, financial security, and knowing that someone wanted to commit to him, not to mention that $100MM is still a fuckton of money.

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  12. GBTS

    Berselius wrote:

    The Rays must have blackmail photos of Longoria or something. This is fucking ridiculous.

    Isn’t there a picture of his penis already floating on the internet? What could they possibly have?

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  13. wpbc

    gents, it’s reached an obnoxious point where the cubs can’t hire an assistant fucking hitting coach without the fans bitching and moaning about theo/jed. people are not even willing to look at these moves and wait and see. it’s just a jump to conclusion that the hiring is bad. lmfao.

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  14. Aisle424

    wpbc wrote:

    gents, it’s reached an obnoxious point where the cubs can’t hire an assistant fucking hitting coach without the fans bitching and moaning about theo/jed. people are not even willing to look at these moves and wait and see. it’s just a jump to conclusion that the hiring is bad. lmfao.

    It does seem like an odd hire, what with the massive contact issues he always had as a player. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher the snark from the pure bitching like Theo is a moron.

    I tend to follow more of the smarter Cubs fans on Twitter and there was quite a bit of snark, but I didn’t see many meatball tweets like Theo is ruining their lives on purpose or something. In reality, it’s a pretty minor hiring.

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  15. mb21

    I’m hoping they hire assistant coaches at all coaching positions. The assistant bullpen coach will be the best. Assistant 1st base coach. (dying laughing)

    Maybe they can create more assistants too. Logan Watkins could be the Assistant 2nd baseman.

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  16. mb21

    If the Cubs add assistants for every positions, there would be a catcher, assistant catcher, back-up catcher and an assistant back-up catcher. That’s awesome.

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  17. Rice Cube

    @ mb21:
    Baseball would actually resemble football with the runner, assistant runner, backup runner and assistant to the runner trying to railroad the catcher, assistant catcher, backup catcher and assistant to the catcher at the plate. I would totally pay to see this.

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  18. Rizzo the Rat

    Anyway, I’ve heard it’s increasingly common to have an assistant hitting coach, especially a left-handed one (to compliment the righty).

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  19. SVB

    The Angels have an asst hitting coach. Others do to but I can’t remember which teams. As I recall from an article in SI last spring, the Angels split assignments between the hitting coach and his assistant so that one focuses on the mental approach (I guess that is looking for the right pitch to hit, playing within oneself, whatever the f that means, etc.) and the other works on mechanics. Apparently most folks aren’t really strong at both. Not sure which one is Deer’s forte. I assume that he’ll have batters in slumps stare into the lights though.

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  20. WaLi

    @ Berselius:
    It always surprises me how quick Wiki is:

    On November 27, 2012, Feldman signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs. Feldman, along with new Cub Scott Baker, will compete for spots in the starting rotation in 2013.

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  21. Rice Cube

    @ Berselius:
    @ Berselius:
    Brett at BN had mentioned the Cubs kicking the tires on Keppinger before he almost killed himself on the stairs, so Stewart may be on the way out. Though if they now have to wait for Keppinger to get healthy, what’s the rule on non-tendering a guy and then waiting to re-sign him until after the Rule 5 draft? I doubt anybody will clamor for Stewart’s services right away and he likely won’t settle for a minor league deal if he can help it.

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  22. PFD

    @mb21

    Fangraphs apparently loves the signing. Cameron wrote it up.

    Also, came across this comment in the chat, which I’m not sure I agree with:

    Comment From Grand Admiral Braun
    Garza/Samardzija/Baker/Feldman/T. Wood – that’s an above average NL rotation, no?

    Jeff Sullivan:
    it’s fine

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