Giancarlo Stanton To Miss Rest Of Season, A-Rod On Miami Marlins’ Radar?
The Miami Marlins received bad news on Sunday morning when superstar outfielder Giancarlo Stanton was placed on the disabled list with a groin injury. The news got worse when manager Don Mattingly told reporters, including Joe Frisaro of MLB, that Stanton will miss the rest of 2016 and called his injury “serious.”
Stanton, 25, was having a down season by his standards, slashing 0.244/0.329/0.496 but his power was still there as evidenced by his 25 home runs and 70 runs batted in. However, the groin injury will cause Stanton to miss the latter part of his third consecutive season.
He missed a chunk of September in 2014 after then-Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Mike Fiers hit him in the face with a pitch, causing multiple facial injuries. Last June, Stanton fractured his left hamate bone, limiting him to just 74 games. However, Stanton still posted strong offensive totals, blasting 27 HRs and 67 RBIs in the injury-shortened season.
This latest injury occurred in the Marlins’ 8-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday as Stanton was called out sliding for the final out of the game.
“He looked like he got shot,” Mattingly said (via ESPN). “You just see the leg give out. Obviously it’s not a very good sign when you see that. Hopefully he’s out a couple of weeks, and we get back at it. If not, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”
Stanton joins first baseman Justin Bour on the disabled list, adding another hole to a Marlins team that owns a 61-56 record and currently holds one of the two Wild Card spots. Recent addition to the 3,000-hit club, Ichiro Suzuki, will likely take over for Stanton in the outfield unless the team acquires an outfielder in a trade.
The #Marlins bracing to be w/o Justin Bour til September. Details https://t.co/PKlMKtJrey pic.twitter.com/A8xPaVHiaX
— Joe Frisaro (@JoeFrisaro) August 12, 2016
Bour is not progressing from his injury well as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported on Friday. He is not expected to return until early September at the earliest.
With the New York Yankees releasing designated hitter Alex Rodriguez after Friday, the slugger is now a free agent but is poised to assume a role as an advisor for the team. But throughout the farewell process, the 41-year-old never officially announced his retirement and just four homers shy of 700, him returning to another team to resume the chase is plausible.
Craig Davis of the Sun-Sentinel reported on Sunday that the Marlins will give consideration to signing Rodriguez.
“He’s an available player,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said of Rodriguez, whom the Yankees released Saturday.
Alex Rodriguez’s career by the numbers. pic.twitter.com/xVWr91TeYF
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 13, 2016
Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reported on Thursday that the Marlins had “internal discussions” about a pursuit of Rodriguez, who is a favorite of team owner Jeffery Loria and still resides in Miami during the offseason. However, the team expressed no interest in trading for Rodriguez before his release on August 12.
Mattingly added some fuel to the Rodriguez fire by expressing his confidence in Rodriguez being capable of helping an injury-riddled Marlins offense — even if it meant playing him on the field where he logged all one-third of an inning this year.
“There’s no reason he couldn’t play first [base],” Mattingly said. “He has the ability to do a lot of things. We miss Justin a little bit over there at first. I don’t think we’ve been able to replace that. We’re always looking at ways of getting better in different areas.”
While A-Rod may not be the solution, the Marlins will be in the market to address their problem.
[Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images]
