Every year, when the baseball's traveling All-Star circus rolls into town, a player on the hosting team is designated as an official All-Star ambassador. It's a good way to put a face on what is always a major event for a city. Last year, with the game at Petco Park in San Diego, first baseman Wil Myers got the honor. In 2015, with the game in Cincinnati, it fell to then-Red Todd Frazier.
With the 2017 game in Miami, which Marlin landed the honor? It was three of them, actually: Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich and Martin Prado. That assumes that all are still with the franchise come Tuesday. Badum-CHING!
A cheap shot? Sure. But you probably understand the context of that crack without needing me to spell it out. That in itself tells you a lot about Marlins history. There might be no better summation of the Marlins' history than this: Stanton, at age 27, is the franchise's all-time leader in wins above replacement with a career total of just under 30. None of the other Marlins greats who might have flashed through your mind were around long enough to make for a respectable all-time leaderboard.
The Marlins are the turmoil franchise, one that somehow flies two championship banners at Marlins Park despite the near-constant tumult. Despite those two memorable championship wins, what most people across the national baseball landscape know of the Marlins is that those titles were punctuated by roster sell-offs.
The turmoil has continued this season. The Marlins are up for sale, and the bidding process has been in the headlines all season with some big names attached to it. Derek Jeter. Jeb Bush. There also have been rumors that owner Jeffrey Loria overshot in his initial asking price (a reported $1.8 billion). But assuming a sale goes through, he'll still stand to make a boatload of cash thanks to a team-friendly stadium situation so controversial that it was the subject of a front-page story in The New York Times last week -- more than five years after Marlins Park opened for business.
"There are always a buzz of rumors around here every year," Stanton said of the sales process. "You just wait until everything is confirmed."
Stanton is a terrific player, no doubt about that. But as good as he has been the past few years, his productivity has been kneecapped by a string of mostly unrelated injuries that seem to have nothing in common except simple bad luck. In his second season, at age 21, Stanton played in 150 games. His next-highest total is 145, in 2014, when he led the National League in homers, total bases and slugging percentage while finishing second in that season's MVP balloting. His high in games played beyond those campaigns is just 123. It's no wonder that simply staying on the field ranks high on Stanton's yearly list of goals.
"Play a full year and all the stats will take care of themselves," said Stanton, summing it up during Miami's recent trip to Chicago. "Just be out there and give yourself a chance."
He has been giving himself a chance this season, having missed just one game during the season's first half. And the numbers have indeed followed. Stanton is tied for the NL lead in homers (26) and is on pace for a career-best 48; he's also on target to hit triple digits in RBIs and runs. Stanton was named to the NL All-Star squad for the fourth time. He's also the top seed and defending champion in Monday's Home Run Derby, with anticipation running high on a potential showdown between Stanton and the Yankees' Aaron Judge in the final round.
This really should be a spotlight time in Stanton's career. The good health. The derby, which was made for men like Stanton. There is also chance to showcase his home city. Instead, it's all undermined by nagging rumors of the team's sale and, worse, the possibility of yet another sell-off. If you believe the rumor mill, that could include any of the ambassadors: Yelich, Prado and, yes, Stanton (despite his massive contract). Also Miami's other All-Star, outfielder Marcell Ozuna.
Make no mistake, Stanton is the face of all of this, a rock in an ongoing hurricane. What does he think of this face of the franchise business?
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Stanton said. "There are only 30 of them. But it's not as important as being the face of a franchise that is successful. To be the face of anything, you want to be successful. That's more important to me."
It's not hard to understand why Stanton would feel that way. This is his seventh year at the big league level with the Marlins. He has yet to experience a winning record, and this year is looking increasingly unlikely to yield that coveted over-.500 mark. Through all the losses and all the hard luck with injuries, Stanton has remained steadfast in working on his game, his body and his nutrition. It wasn't always like that for him.
"I had no idea about it," Stanton said of his younger self's habits, "I kind of learned as I got into this, how to treat my body. You want to have better recoveries and routines. Because we have a crazy schedule every day, especially with travel. It was a learning process, for sure."
In many ways, Stanton is a self-made player. It's easy to look at the ferocity with which he strikes the baseball and think he's imbued with rare natural ability. But he was actually a second-round pick back in 2007 and has built himself into the Adonis we now know him to be. And while he's more or less perfect in his workout and nutrition regimens, he's always looking for that next improvement to his game.
"Just keep getting better and keep learning as I play," Stanton said. "Give away fewer and fewer at-bats every year, become a tougher at-bat every year. Try and develop into a winning ballclub."
When you take one look of Stanton flexing his arms with a bat in his hands, it becomes clear that it's a process Stanton has learned better than most. His propensity for massive home runs and laser beams off the bat has made him a darling of the Statcast era, when we can put numbers to all of those awe-inspiring drives. Stanton likes that stuff, but more for entertainment than as a learning tool.
"If you see it after the fact, it's cool," Stanton said. "But you don't say you're going swing extra hard to get 3 miles per hour more on my exit velocity. You just keep playing. I wish they had analysis of my first couple of years when I just swung as hard as I could.
"But it's a cool thing. I think all the ballparks should have exit velocity on [the scoreboard] for the fans to see."
Hopefully, if anything, this week will serve as an oasis for Stanton as the Marlins take center stage in the baseball world, really for the first time since the 2003 World Series. Afterward, the sale rumors will return to the front page, and the trade deadline is only a couple of weeks away. It's always something. For now, it's All-Star time in Miami.
"It's good," Stanton said. "It's always a good time in Miami, and it'll bring a lot of buzz, as do a lot of events that are hosted there. But here's another good one that will make the city jump for a few weeks."