Dreaming of slugger Giancarlo Stanton manning right field for your contending team this summer? Forget about it. Multiple reports this week suggest Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria will not trade Stanton before the July 31st deadline. According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, Loria is "adamant about wanting to build around Stanton." And two days ago, ESPN's Jayson Stark wrote that officials of three different teams told him Loria "has decided this isn't the time to deal him."
Stanton, who is under the Marlins' control through 2016, "remains extremely unlikely to sign with the club long term," according to Rosenthal. Regardless, Rosenthal hears Loria is "hell-bent on winning in the near future - and proving that he made the right baseball decisions when he tore apart his roster." The Marlins traded Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante, Edward Mujica, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Emilio Bonifacio, and John Buck in the last year, but as Rosenthal notes, many of their young players are coming on strong. How interesting would it be if this team made significant acquisitions during the offseason? Top free agents would be extremely wary, but money talks and trades remain possible.
The Marlins do have trade candidates this summer aside from Stanton, including Ricky Nolasco, Placido Polanco, Greg Dobbs, Juan Pierre, Jeff Mathis, Chad Qualls, Ryan Webb, Kevin Slowey, Steve Cishek, and Mike Dunn.
