If you’re a fan of the Miami Marlins, avert your eyes. This isn’t going to be pretty.
We know that the Marlins struggled in 2018. By and large, that was expected. Even still, the comparison between Miami’s outfielders and what Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich did in their first year away from the Marlins is ugly.
https://twitter.com/MWBII/status/1047253461962817536
By comparison, Miami’s most powerful outfielder in 2018 was Derek Dietrich. He hit 16 home runs on the season, with 13 of those coming as a left fielder.
Even with the caveat that the Marlins were rebuilding, this is a punch in the gut.
Losing Stanton may not be so bad. A case could be made that Miami just couldn’t maintain keeping him on board with that contract. But Yelich’s contract was quite team-friendly.
Making matters worse is that Lewis Brinson, the presumably MLB-ready outfielder who was the star return in the Yelich trade, hit .199/.240/.338 with 11 home runs.
For the sake of the Marlins’ fans out there, we can only hope that 2019 goes a little more smoothly. It can’t be much rougher.