Gian-Cards-No? Stanton Would Reportedly Veto Trades to Cardinals, Red Sox

I had toyed with the idea of leaving the Red Sox out of the title, but opted to leave them in for the sake of full disclosure. According to a report from Chad Jennings of the Boston Herald, Giancarlo Stanton does not want to play for either Boston or St. Louis.

A baseball source said yesterday that he’s been told Stanton will not accept a trade to either the Red Sox or the Cardinals, another team linked early and often in trade rumors. Perhaps there’s some flexibility in that stance, but Stanton’s preference is a factor.

This follows on the heels of an earlier report from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that said the Marlins had a good idea of which teams their slugger would approve deals with.

Michael Hill, the Marlins’ president of baseball operations, said he has been keeping Stanton informed about the “possibilities,” and that he knows the teams that Stanton would approve.

“I do have a sense, and we’ll keep that internally,” Hill said. “At the appropriate time we’ll discuss what we need to discuss. … With the whole trade process, there are rumors out there — and there have been a lot of them — I didn’t speak to the media until last week but he was traded 15 million different places. We work internally. We do what we need to do, and if we need to present him with something, we will do so at the appropriate time.”

If Stanton is indeed opposed to playing baseball the right way, it hampers the Marlins’ efforts on two different levels. Not only are their options to move him more limited, but the Cardinals were said to be willing to part with top pitching talent to acquire Stanton.

Jon Heyman reported Monday that “at least seven teams here have shown some level of interest in Stanton,” naming the Cardinals and Giants as the most aggressive suitors. The Phillies, once thought to have been among the favorites, have apparently cooled in their pursuit.

Likewise, the Yankees had checked in on Stanton but are replete with young sluggers and are trying to get under the luxury tax threshold for the first time in 16 years. The Dodgers have yet to check in, leaving several other mystery teams still potentially in the mix.

The news that St. Louis may be a no-go for Stanton leaves the Giants alone at the top, though the Marlins are surely bearish on the prospects they could get in return. You also have to wonder about San Francisco’s luxury-tax situation, which could preclude them from a deal of this magnitude. Then again, they may be willing to blow through the cap and reconfigure salaries later.

In the end, I think we can all agree that the moral of the story here is that Giancarlo Stanton would reportedly veto a trade to the St. Louis Cardinals.