Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After welcome news yesterday that Giancarlo Stanton had rejected agreed upon deals to the Giants and Cardinals, it sure seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Dodgers somehow acquired him given the desperation of the Marlins to shed payroll. Unfortunately, along the way the darn Yankees got involved and now he’s a part of the Bronx Bombers, according to Jon Heyman (with Ken Rosenthal confirming minutes later).
sources: yankees and marlins have a deal for giancarlo stanton
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 9, 2017
Stanton trade to #Yankees happening, as @JonHeyman said.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 9, 2017
In return, the Marlins will get Starlin Castro and prospects that weren’t the system’s best, according to Joel Sherman.
I reported #Yankees are sending at least Castro to #Marlins among veterans and prospects, but not their top ones
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 9, 2017
As Jon Morosi notes, Stanton still has to approve the trade and pass a physical, but those seem to be formalities at this point even if I think it would be hilarious if he rejects the Yankees as well.
Source: Giancarlo Stanton trade agreement is in place between #Yankees and #Marlins, but deal is still pending Stanton’s consent and Yankees approval of physical. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 9, 2017
One got the feeling things were about to go downhill when Bob Nightengale tweeted last night that the Marlins weren’t remotely interested in taking back contracts from the Yankees.
The #Yankees are asking the #Marlins to take on their bad contracts. Sorry, #Marlins not remotely interested
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/939354080727592960
Naturally, a few hours later Joel Sherman tweeted that the deal was basically done and Castro would be one of the players going to Miami.
Source: Stanton from #Marlins to #Yankees is “virtually done.” Close to finish line. Hear #Marlins will get at least Starlin Castro plus good but not top prospects if completed. Again physical review can still be part of this so nothing final, but close.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 9, 2017
The curse is real, folks.
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In all seriousness, this just sucks. There’s no way around that feeling after losing out on the reigning NL MVP who wanted to come home to play for the team he grew up cheering for. And why? Probably money, as the Dodgers appeared fearful of the magnitude of Stanton’s contract and how it would have impacted their ability to stay reasonably in range of the luxury tax. It’s disappointing.
Yes, the Dodgers will be fine. They still return a great team and basically nothing they do this off-season will change the fact that 2018 looks promising. However, a trade for Stanton made enough sense for a team on the cusp that Dustin backed a hypothetical deal not once, but twice. Now after losing out on both Stanton and Shohei Ohtani (who went to the Angels), the Dodgers are left licking their wounds and figuring out how to approach the rest of the off-season.
Who knows? Maybe the Dodgers have something else up their sleeve instead or maybe in a few years the fears about Stanton’s contract becoming an albatross will come to fruition and we’ll crack jokes about how emo we all were about this, but right now it sure just feels like a huge missed opportunity to significantly upgrade the Dodgers.
