Here’s what Giancarlo Stanton had to say about the Marlins, Jeter and home run sculpture
It has been a little more than three months since the Miami Marlins traded Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees, one of four big trade moves made by new ownership Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman.
On Tuesday, nine days before Opening Day, Sports Illustrated released a cover story by Ben Reiter that goes into extensive detail about how the trade went down as well as other thoughts from Stanton about the Marlins’ organization.
Highlights from the piece:
▪ When Jeter was first announced as part of the new ownership, Stanton was initially on board with the idea.
“All you knew about Jeter was the winning background, the winning culture,” Stanton said. “We were all pumped to hopefully get things going in the right direction, to finally give some respect to our organization.”
That quickly changed. When Stanton met face-to-face with Jeter for the first time Dec. 5, he made a plea to the new co-owner to work with the team he inherited, a team Stanton thought was maybe a pitcher or two away from competing.
“Give it one half of the season,” Stanton said. “If we aren’t right there with the Nationals, or right there in the wild-card race, then you can deal everybody.”
Instead, Stanton said he was given an ultimatum: Be traded or we’ll trade everyone else from the team. At that point, according to the SI piece, the Marlins already had trade terms set with the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, but Stanton said he didn’t want to be forced into a situation to appease the owner of an organization he wasn’t going to be playing for next season.
“This may not go exactly how I planned,” Stanton said in reference to his conversation with Jeter. “But it’s definitely not going to go how you have planned.”
▪ While Stanton already has a litany of individual accolades to his name — four-time All-Star and 2017 National League MVP among them — the 28-year-old said he wanted his career to be remembered for more than just his individual accomplishments. This came after years of being asked the same old question: “What’s going on down there?” in reference to the Marlins constant upheaval during his eight years with the team.
“You laugh it off for a while,” Stanton says. “Then you start thinking, Are you part of that mess? Are you the face of what every-one is laughing about? It didn’t sit well with me for a while — for years.”
▪ Stanton also said he really didn’t care about the Marlins’ home run sculpture in left-center field.
“I hope Jeter takes it down,” Stanton said. “He said he wants to. I hope he does. All it does is suggest that this place is a circus, and we’re the main attraction.
“The circus is over now.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Here’s what Giancarlo Stanton had to say about the Marlins, Jeter and home run sculpture."