After refusing trades to St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, outfielder Giancarlo Stanton waived his no-trade clause in favor of the New York Yankees. Miami Marlins traded Stanton to the Yankees in exchange for Dominican second baseman Starlin Castro and two minor leaguers, pitcher Jorge Guzman and infielder Jose Devers.
According to Stanton, his motivation for accepting the trade to the Yankees was the team’s young and balanced core.
“They strike from everywhere, and they’re well balanced, and they’re hungry,“- Stanton said on Monday during his introductory news conference. “The city’s been waiting for another World Series and a playoff run, and they got close enough this year. But hopefully, with my addition, we’re going to advance and be a better team.“
Marlins were trying to offload Stanton for some time now, in order to start with the rebuild that was announced after the team was taken over by a new ownership led which included former Yankee Derek Jeter. This proved to be a tough deal to make, since there weren’t many teams that were willing to take Stanton’s 13-year, $325 million contract which he signed in 2014. Besides this, Stanton wasn’t eager to accept the trade to just any team and had a shortlist that included Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
“I had no feeling about trading him to the Yankees,“- said Jeter after the trade. “We wanted to get the best deal. Contrary to what people believe, we were not stuck with this deal. This was the best deal out of the three for us. My feeling was to try to make the Miami Marlins organization better, and that was the No. 1 priority.“
With Stanton as part of their roster, Yankees are now among the favorites to collect the World Series next season. As for Marlins, their fans will have to watch some pretty bad games until things get better.
