Can't The Miami Marlins have just one Clayton Kershaw?

Clayton Kershaw will never play for the Miami Marlins...but is it so much to ask for the Miami Marlins to have a Kershaw of their very own?

Just as pitchers and catchers started to report earlier this month, the news broke that the Los Angeles Dodgers were bringing back Clayton Kershaw for what will presumably be the final season of his MLB career. Even if it isn't though, and he does still go on to spend a couple years playing for a team in his native Texas before hanging it up, there's no question that he will always be remembered as a Dodger. Well that, and as one of the best to ever play the game.

Why can't the Miami Marlins have a player like that?

It's the first thing I thought of when the Kershaw news broke, and it's been top of my mind for me with the Marlins ever since. To be fair, I suppose this particular issue has been top of mind with me for the Marlins ever since they blew apart the 1997 World Series champions. The revolving door nature of the relationship between fans and players has just been a fact of life for baseball in South Florida. The Kershaw news really brought it back home though, especially when paired with all the trade whispers surrounding franchise face Sandy Alcantara.

With the tragic exception of Jose Fernandez, the Marlins have simply never had that- an All Star caliber, star player that spent their career with the Marlins. Even Mr. Marlin himself, Jeff Conine, spent almost as many games out of a Marlins uniform as he did in one. Not to mention the fact that fans had to watch him leave in his prime. Just as they watched Luis Castillo, Derek Lee, and countless others. Of the franchise's Top 10 leaders in games played, only Miguel Rojas has fewer than at least five seasons spent wearing another team's uniform, and all of them either enjoyed greater team or personal success once they left.

Someone who played long enough in Miami to put together a Hall of Fame resume of just Marlins stats, though? Ten years or more, all in figurative teal? Someone who will always unquestionably, and inextricably be first and foremost a Marlin?

Thirty-two seasons in, it's never happened. Here's hoping Sandy Alcantara gets a chance to change that.