Earlier this past week it was announced Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria had finally reached an agreement to sell the franchise after years of skeletal pay rolls and profiteering without quality. One of the few things Loria ever willingly invested in was signing star slugger Giancarlo Stanton to a massive 13-year, 325-million dollar extension in 2014.
The 6-foot-6, 245-pound slugger has now tied the franchise’s single-season home run mark. Stanton did so against the Marlins expansion cousin the Colorado Rockies, who also began play in the 1993 season when German Marquez gave the slugger something he could smash. That home run was his 42nd home run, tying Gary Sheffield’s franchise record set in 1996.
The most surprising thing to Sheffield when contacted about his team record was that Stanton had not broken it sooner, although the reason for that could be bad injury luck. Stanton missed 40 or more games in four separate seasons and thirty-nine in a fifth due to injury. Given the tear he has been on recently, with nine home runs in August and 21 over the past 33 games, it is plausible that Sheffield’s mark is surpassed today when Miami plays the San Francisco Giants.
Where the Marlins single-season mark ends up is as far up in the air as any of the long balls that the right-fielder has smashed, with projections seeing his total end up as high as 59, which would tie as the ninth most in a single season all time. This home run was also Stanton’s 250th which puts him half way to the hallowed 500 home run club of which Sheffield and only 26 other players are a part of. With the way he swings the bat and the length of his contract, it is feasible that in another decade or so Mr. Stanton will hit that milestone as one of the first true legends of the Marlins franchise.
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