Gian(ts)-Cards-No: Stanton Officially Rejects St. Louis (and San Francisco)

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanDecember 8, 2017

There may be more constructive ways to soothe your own disappointment than by bathing in the tears of another spurned fanbase, but that’s exactly what scores of Cubs fans found themselves doing Friday afternoon. Not long after news broke that Japanese star Shohei Ohtani (No-Tani?) had chosen the Angels, we learned that Giancarlo Stanton had refused to waive his no-trade clause for the Cardinals.

“We had an agreement to acquire Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins, subject to him waiving his no-trade clause,” read the statement released by Bill DeWitt Jr, Cardinals chairman and CEO. “We have been notified that he will not waive his no-trade clause to come to St. Louis. While we are disappointed in his decision, we will continue to make every effort to improve our club for the upcoming season.”

“Unfortunately we were not able to convince Stanton to waive his no-trade clause and join the Cardinals,” said president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. “We felt this was a great landing spot for him, but it was not meant to be.”

The only surprising thing about this decision is that the Cards felt the need to release statements to announce it. I suppose that’s a way to get out in front of the news rather than leave it to the social media horde. But it was reported as far back as mid-November that Stanton would reject trades to either St. Louis or Boston and we got more recent word that his list of acceptable teams featured only the Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, and Astros.

As inevitable as this was, it still left some folks angry and crestfallen. I’m speaking, of course, about the clown show that is Marlins ownership. They began trade negotiations prior to gaining Stanton’s consent, then tried to extort him with threats that they’d trade away the rest of the team to balance out the salary he was costing them. Way to earn that RE2PECT, Jeets.

The Marlins did at least manage to jettison Dee Gordon’s $38 million in exchange for two of the Mariners’ top-10 prospects, so not all is lost. Speaking of, Seattle and GM Jerry Dipoto would like a word with anyone who’s feeling salty about not landing a big-time player. They swung two deals involving three top prospects to add $2 million in bonus pool money in an attempt to lure Shohei Ohtani, but they ended up with only Dee Gordon and two fistfuls of ragrets [sic]. Oof.

There’s still a very good chance Stanton is dealt by the Winter Meetings, but with only one existing offer and no advanced talks with any of the teams on his purported list, the Marlins have no leverage. But that’s really beside the point, which is that Stanton rejected the Cardinals.

***Update***

No sooner had I published this than the Giants announced that their overtures had also been denied.

Huh, looks like the Marlins are gonna have to eat some of that salary or get bupkis in return. Maybe Theo Epstein can offer Derek Jeter his virtual reality video-making machine in exchange for the slugger.

Photo of Evan Altman Evan AltmanDecember 8, 2017
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