
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
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I’m not even writing up the Dodgers as the favorites to land Stanton because I’m a biased Dodger fan. This is pure facts. By this time it’s a stipulation among the baseball community that Stanton’s first choice is to play in Los Angeles. Why wouldn’t he?
He’s a local produce of LA County and the Dodgers are one of the most talented young teams in the league right now. They are built to win now and will be championship contenders for the next 10 years while Stanton is under contract. This is the ideal spot for Stanton.
Now, why haven’t the Dodgers pressed harder on getting a deal done? Well for one, they were focused on Shohei Ohtani. Their primary need is a top of the rotation right-hander and Ohtani fit the bill of killing two birds with one stone (don’t @ me PETA).
Depending on who you talk to, that was fortunate or unfortunate news for the Dodgers. This means now the Dodgers can shift their focus to putting together a trade package for the Marlins. I’ve already made my case why the owners don’t have any excuse not to pursue Stanton, you can read that here.
There are two clear front-runners in the Stanton sweepstakes. The Dodgers and the Yankees. Both have money to absorb the contract and both can become serious contenders for several years with the trade. It isn’t like the Marlins are asking for a king’s ransom in the trade. Their trade with the Giants and the Cardinals wasn’t anything over the top.
Next: Dodgers Miss out on Signing Ohtani
At the end of the day, Stanton holds all the cards here. If he really wants to force his way to LA the Marlins can’t do anything about it. I’m really respecting how Stanton is going about this trade process and trying to find a contender to join. All we can do is sit and wait for the Marlins to find a deal with a team that Stanton likes. If Jeter and co. were smart that would start and end with the Dodgers.