The Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton hit 93 home runs in his first 371 games, leading MLB in slugging percentage last year as a 22-year-old. He's under team control through 2016 and hasn't gotten expensive yet. The Marlins sliced payroll drastically in the November blockbuster with the Blue Jays, but Stanton won't even be arbitration eligible until after this season. If we look at the examples of Miguel Cabrera and Josh Beckett, they were traded with three years of big league service time, a point Stanton will reach after this season.
The 2005 Marlins were trying to win, however, and that's probably why Beckett was dealt after the season rather than during it. Cabrera was not dealt as part of the team's fire sale during the 2005-06 offseason, but rather after the '07 season. So, Cabrera stayed with the club for two full post-fire sale seasons.
When star shortstop Hanley Ramirez had two years of big league service, the Marlins signed him to a record-setting six-year extension. He remained with the team for the first three-plus years of that deal, and was traded to the Dodgers after a notable decline in performance.
Your turn to weigh in: with nearly every team in baseball wanting to get their hands on Giancarlo Stanton, when will he be traded?
