The Miami Marlins have finally surrounded Giancarlo Stanton with eye-popping talent
Seldom for Miami Marlins fans is there something to cheer about daily.
Usually it’s more of a once-in-a-blue-moon excitement at Marlins Park. The sort created by a pitcher, like the late Jose Fernandez, who captures the imagination by twirling gem after gem. Sometimes it’s a management change, be it Ozzie Guillen or Don Mattingly on the bench, or more recently with Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush attempting to take over as owners.
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Yet the outer chaos gets easier to brush off when looking at the currently daily product, a collection of talent that could easily become the core of a contender if it hasn’t already.
Sure, the staff still has success on the mound — namely with Wei-Yin Chen and Dan Straily — but the real excitement begins with Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton, who have developed into something more eye-popping in the outfield than the home run sculpture behind them. And that talent continues with J.T Realmuto behind the plate.
You can catch all of them in action Monday when the Marlins host the Tampa Bay Rays at 7:10 p.m. ET. Stream the game on the Yahoo Sports MLB page, on our Free Game of the Day tab or in this very post. Local blackouts apply per MLB rules.
What you’ll notice right away is that this Marlins team is no longer just a one-man lineup. That’s not to take away any glory from Stanton, either. It’s to share it.
While the slugger, and reigning Home Run Derby champion, has long been the main attraction in Miami, he’s not the only attraction anymore.
Realmuto has arguably been more impressive at the plate. With a current slash line of .345/.383/.474, the 26-year-old catcher is picking up where he left off after a 2016 season that saw him finish with a BABIP of .357 — which ranked as the 10th-best in the Majors and put his name alongside Mike Trout, Joey Votto, Paul Goldschmidt and D.J. LeMahieu as one of the best contact hitters.
Just one spot below Realmuto on that list last year was Yelich (.356 BABIP), who’s parlayed a breakout performance in the World Baseball Classic into a fantastic start with the Marlins in 2017.
That’s to say nothing of Stanton, who is right up there in home runs again with seven in April. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Stanton, Realmuto and Ozuna all have an OPS above .850 (Ozuna leads the pack at .891).
As a team the Marlins have the seventh-best batting average in the league (.260). Which would be impressive for any Miami team in recent memory, but even more so when you consider that puts them ahead of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies in a year when balls have been flying around the park to start the season.
Just four years ago Miami finished with the worst team batting average in the league at .231 and it wasn’t really close.
Those were the days when it didn’t seem worth it to turn on a Marlins game. Thanks to Stanton, Yelich, Realmuto and Ozuna, there’s something worth watching in Miami.
To merely pass off this team as competitive does a disservice to the current state of the NL East. As the New York Mets sit in last place with a plethora of injuries, and the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves work on rebuilding, the Marlins have a chance to prove themselves as a true challenger in the division.
That’s something to get excited about every day.
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Blake Schuster is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Schustee
