Stowers ‘would love’ a Marlins extension. For now, his focus is building on 2025 success
At this time a year ago, Kyle Stowers’ locker wasn’t bombarded by reporters as he prepared for his first spring training with the Miami Marlins.
What a difference a season can make.
Stowers, who the Marlins acquired from the Baltimore Orioles ahead of the 2024 MLB trade deadline, has evolved into one of the team’s top hitters. He was their All-Star during a season in which he hit .288 with a .912 on-base-plus-slugging mark, 25 home runs, 73 RBI and 61 runs scored in 117 games before a left oblique strain ended his season six weeks early. He was an extension candidate in the offseason as well, although brief talks between the Marlins and his representatives fizzled.
(According to The Athletic, the Marlins were reportedly offering an eight-year, $50 million deal while Stowers’ representatives sought an eight-year, $100 million extension.)
Stowers on Monday acknowledged the conversations between his camp and the Marlins but pushed back on the $100 million number.
He also acknowledged that there might be a waiting period for a formal long-term deal — he’s under team control through the 2029 season and understands the Marlins “have every right to play my control out.”
But Stowers also acknowledged this:
“I’m just so excited to be here, so grateful to be in this organization,” Stowers said. “I was bummed we didn’t get something figured out; would love to someday. But at the same time, let’s take care of this year, and we’ll go from there.”
Stowers, 29, is the type of player the Marlins can build around. The left-handed-hitter is a magnet in the clubhouse, almost always bubbly and in a positive mood. His aura is contagious.
Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix on Monday wouldn’t talk about “hypotheticals” regarding where things stand on a potential Stowers extension but did say he “is a lot of what we stand for as Marlins.”
“The way he got better last year at the major-league level, that’s what we’re all about,” Bendix said. “The person that he is, that’s what we’re all about. And so it’s really exciting that we have Kyle, that he’s going to be hitting in the middle of our lineup on Opening Day. We’re really excited about him getting even better. I think there’s another layer in there, another level that he can achieve, that can help us get to where we want to go. Kyle’s really meaningful. He’s a great person to build around. He’s a great player to build around. Really happy that he’s a Marlin.”
And he showed last season he’s a pretty good baseball player.
What finally clicked?
“Simply put, I was finally able to separate what happened before 6:10 with my work, and then what happened at 6:40 [when games began] and on,” Stowers said. “I think fear of failure, stresses, anxieties, performance anxiety, stuff like that, I just feel like I’ve gotten so much better at dealing with that type of stuff. Mechanically, adjustments in the cage and all that, it all plays a factor, but there’s the cheesy saying, ‘Let go and let God.’ And I think at 6:40, I was able to just go out and let things play out.”
Those early doubts would have been easy to creep in for Stowers last season, especially with the way his spring training unfolded. Stowers hit just .175 — 7 for 40 — with 18 strikeouts and 12 walks in Grapefruit League play.
“I think the good news is if I play poorly in spring, everyone will be like, ‘Oh, he’s right on pace with last year,’” Stowers said with a laugh. “So I guess you guys will keep the low bar for me for spring.”
But when the season began, the big moments started to stack up.
The walk-off single on Opening Day to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4.
The walk-off grand slam against the Athletics on May 3.
The three-homer game on July 13 against the Orioles in the series finale against the team that drafted him.
The seven overall three-hit games. The five overall multi-homer games.
He ranked in the top 10 percentile of MLB hitters in barrel rate (19%, 98th percentile), expected slugging (.537, 95th percentile) and hard-hit rate (52%, 94th percentile). He was consistently good against all pitch types (.294 average/.543 slugging against fastballs; .276 average/.520 slugging against breaking balls; .288 average/.575 slugging against offspeed).
“Kyle’s path to the success he had last year certainly wasn’t linear,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “It’s a testament to Kyle that he has just continued to try to figure out ways to close up things in his swing or close up parts of the zone that he had trouble with. His spring training last year wasn’t probably something that he or us were writing home about. But it didn’t put cold water on the belief of what we thought Kyle had the chance to be as a player.”
Even when he was sidelined at the end of the season, relegated to watching as the Marlins attempted to make a playoff push down the stretch, he did what he could to support his teammates.
Third baseman Connor Norby, who the Marlins acquired with Stowers in 2024, leaned on Stowers late in the season as he was returning from his third injured list stint of the season.
“I’ve known Stowie since I got into pro ball, and there’s no better human,” Norby said. “I’ve been around a lot of really good players, and he’s at the top of that list. I’ve said that from Day 1 of meeting him. Can’t be more proud of what he’s done. I know he wanted to be out there to help us finish strong, and those last couple weeks, I know he was pushing try to get back, and ultimately, it just didn’t happen. But I know he’s gonna come in and be ready to go. He looks great. ... I really leaned on him toward the end of the year, and I really thought that he helped me a ton. That last final stretch, really, for me, was my best stretch of baseball, and credit to him for the conversations and the work that we put together, had together. He’s a world-class player and world-class human. Big year for him coming.”
And Stowers knows he can’t rest on his laurels of one dominant season. The league is going to adjust to him. He has to adjust back. He had a strong season, one that could have warranted down-ballot MVP votes if he finished the year healthy, when very few around the league were expecting it from him.
They know who Kyle Stowers is now, and that brings on a new challenge.
“Doing it with expectations is a different beast,” Stowers said, “but something that worked well for me last year was low expectation and high belief. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year. No one in this clubhouse does. When you step into a season, there’s this wide, vast range of possibilities that could happen, and rather than obsessing over every little outcome, I just try to control what I can control. I’ve gotten quite good at doing that. I just want to put myself in a position to go out there and play and flush, good or bad, whatever happens on each day, and do the same thing the next day.”
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