Giancarlo Stanton finished second in 2014 National League Most Valuable Player voting, but appears to be closing in on a much bigger win. The prodigious slugger has been working on a reported 13-year contract worth $325 million with the Miami Marlins, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, and Heyman is now reporting that this deal is finally in place with an official announcement to come later this week.
Giancarlo Stanton’s record $325 million deal reportedly in place with Marlins
Stanton made $6.5 million in 2014 and is two years from free agency.
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The deal would include a no-trade clause and an opt-out for Stanton after an as-of-yet-unknown number of years and was confirmed by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, who initially reported talks of a deal for at least 10 years and $300 million on Thursday.
The contract, which isn't yet finalized nor announced by the team, would be the largest in total value for a player in American sports history, surpassing the 10-year, $275 million contract signed by Alex Rodriguez with the New York Yankees prior to the 2008 season. But unlike the dread that New York feels with the $61 million still due Rodriguez over three years through his age-41 season, Stanton's contract would take him only through age 37.
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Stanton, who turned 25 on Nov. 8, had his best season in 2014, hitting .288/.395/.555 with 37 home runs, 105 RBI and 94 walks. Stanton has 154 home runs in his first five years in the major leagues, including averaging 33 home runs over his last four full seasons. But if there is any concern over committing such a long deal to Stanton, it is that he has averaged just 134 games per year from 2011-2014, missing an average of 28 games per season.
Stanton made $6.5 million in 2014, and was due for two more years of salary arbitration before becoming eligible for free agency after the 2016 season. The details aren’t yet known, but the average value for the 11 free agent years of the contract seem likely to settle somewhere near $27 million annually.
Last winter, Mike Trout, the Angels outfielder who was named American League MVP on Thursday after a pair of runner-up finishes, signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract that bought out three arbitration years and three free agent years, with an average of $33.25 million in the three free agent seasons.
The Marlins have averaged just over $60 million in opening day payroll as a team in Stanton’s five years with the team, per Cot’s Contracts, topping $58 million just once during that span, in 2012.
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