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| Crazy Dream Or Possibility? |
It's the longest-running soap opera of the baseball off-season: where the heck will mega-star
Giancarlo Stanton end up? New Marlins honcho
Derek Jeter has made it clear that clearing payroll is his number one goal—thus the big guy (and his $295 million contract) must go! The three credible landing spots have been narrowed down to St. Louis, San Francisco and Boston (with
The Evil Ones and Dodgers on the periphery). But, just how realistic is it that Stanton dons
Carmine Hose in 2018? Because
Dave Dombrowski has already
significantly depleted Boston's reservoir of high-end prospects, any deal with the Marlins would likely need to include major-league talent—some combination of players
like Rafael Devers,
Andrew Benintendi and/or
Eduardo Rodriguez. This, in addition to the Red Sox picking up all or most of the remaining dollars on Stanton's contract (which has 10 years left on it, with a 2020 player opt-out). If
John Henry agrees to eat
all of the contract, maybe the player price drops to some mix of
ERod,
Blake Swihart and/or
Michael Chavis. In any event, because there are cheaper
free-agent options to fill Boston's power void (
J.D. Martinez,
Eric Hosmer,
Carlos Santana), Stanton is much more likely to be a Giant or Cardinal. But, with
Double D at the helm, you can
never rule out a big transaction. And, in fact, the latest rumors have Boston making a
specific trade proposal very soon. Stay tuned!
