Sports

A Giancarlo Stanton destination that should terrify 28 MLB teams

ORLANDO Fla. — I played a game with a few executives when it came to Giancarlo Stanton — forget about where he wants to go (since he has a no-trade clause) and who might be able to afford him (since he is owed $295 million the next 10 years) — and asked them to come up with the most interesting landing spot.

Mine?

The champion Astros.

Can you imagine the Murderers’ Row impact of putting Stanton in the lineup that already was the best in the majors last year with Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and George Springer?

Can you imagine the 70-plus homer potential of Stanton with that lineup protection shooting at the oh-so-close Crawford Boxes in left at Minute Maid Park? Can you imagine how much more baseball crazed Houston would become if the Astros made this move?





So I asked Astros owner Jim Crane about doing it and he said, “Don’t think we haven’t thought about how easily the ball would go out in our ballpark.”

Crane mentioned the danger of absorbing 10-year deals. He cited that the Astros already expect a big bump in payroll with a full season of Justin Verlander on the books and nine arbitration-eligible players. Plus, on the horizon the contracts of Correa, Bregman and Springer will go up significantly, while Dallas Keuchel is a free agent after 2018 and Altuve after ’19.

Yet, Crane would not fully dismiss the Stanton possibility, though to be fair, a high-ranking team official saw it as against just about every stricture that GM Jeff Luhnow has put in place and, therefore, highly unlikely to ever occur.





“We look at everything,” Crane said. “[Stanton] does not fit a specific need, but we will go outside the box, too. No one thought we’d take on Verlander and we got that one done by the skin of our teeth. There are only four or five teams that can take on that kind of contract at this time and we are one of them.”

Still, as baseball officials left the GM meetings on Wednesday, the Giants and Cardinals continued to be viewed as the favorites to land Stanton in a trade with the Marlins.

Melvin Upton did not play last year, mainly because of torn ligaments in his left thumb. But he was at the GM meetings with agent Larry Reynolds to make it clear he does want to play again in 2018.





Reynolds said because of a paucity of available center fielders and because Upton has some positional flexibility there is interest. In 2016, Upton hit 20 homers and stole 27 bases playing for the Padres and Blue Jays.

Julio Urias, who underwent surgery for a torn left shoulder capsule last June, is progressing well, according to Dodgers officials, who believe he could return to the team as early as May.

Urias, still just 21, was viewed as the Dodgers’ top young pitcher before enduring an injury that, at minimum, will cast doubt whether he can return to a lofty status.

It is not just that the Blue Jays led the majors in scoring with 891 runs in 2015 — they led it by 127 runs. They were pretty good again in 2016 with 759 runs, ninth best in the majors.





But last year it was 693 runs, 26th in the majors. That reflects the defection of Edwin Encarnacion, the collapse of Jose Bautista and the decline of/injuries to Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki, in particular.

Still, instead of trading their one prime offensive player, Josh Donaldson, before his walk year, the Blue Jays are looking to upgrade around him by adding at least one corner bat — and, perhaps, two — while looking for a middle-infield depth piece who can play often to protect them because of how frequently Tulowitzki and second baseman Devon Travis are injured.





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