Rumors have cropped up that Miami Marlins' slugger Giancarlo Stanton could be on the move to the Big Apple, according to Bleacherreport.com. A source inside the SFX Baseball Group said that a trade between the Marlins and Mets that would send Stanton and Juan Pierre to Queens for highly touted prospects Zack Wheeler, who was acquired from the San Francisco Giants for Carlos Beltran, and Travis d'Arnaud, who was the centerpiece of the R.A. Dickey deal, has been discussed.
Publicly, the Marlins have repeated that their intent is to keep the 23-year-old odds-on favorite to win the home run title this season and build their franchise around him. One report though, from Fox Sports, had the Marlins discussing Stanton's availability to the Seattle Mariners but those talks fizzled.
While many teams lock up promising stars well before they near the free-agent market, the Marlins have not done so with Stanton, and the relationship between star and franchise appeared frayed after Miami dealt Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and Emilio Bonifacio to the Blue Jays for prospects. Stanton quickly tweeted "Alright, I'm pissed off!!!! Plain&Simple." Stanton has lessened his response in spring, telling Fox Sports "The nine guys on the field are doing nothing but playing their hearts out to win," said Stanton. "Yeah, you might not know every guy's name. We might not be in magazines or TV all the time. But we're still big-league players. We're just like everybody else out there on the field."
Wheeler and d'Arnaud are expected to start the season in the minor leagues, but Mets fans have high expectations that both will contribute to the major league club in 2013. The 24-year-old d'Arnaud has never played an inning of big-league baseball, but has already been traded twice for two Cy Young award winners.
In three years in the big leagues, Stanton has belted 93 home runs and has a career .353 slugging percentage. According to fangraphs.com, he was worth 5.8 WAR (wins above replacement). According to Fangraphs, the going rate has generally been $5 million per win. Because of his age, Stanton is slated to make $500,000 in 2013, won't be arbitration-eligible until after this year, and won't be a free agent until 2016, making him the best bargain in baseball.
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