Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 12: Cody Ross

Find a cooler nickname in Miami Marlins history than the moniker bestowed upon this guy.

At the risk of plagiarizing myself, the nickname assertion is a point I've made before about Cody Ross. Not much I can do about that. The sky is blue. The grass is green. Toy Cannon is the coolest nickname in Miami Marlins franchise history. These are immutable truths, folks.

Telling you who deserves the honor of the top spot in Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series here at No. 12 though? That's new. Yet the answer remains Cody.

Top 20 in Marlins career WAR for a player I think many remember as not being a full-time player? It just goes to show how impactful he was during his time here. That, and the fact that Miami didn't trade for him until late May in 2006, a two-month absence that matches the time he missed due to injury in 2007. Otherwise he was out there about as much as he could handle until the Marlins dumped him on waivers in late 2010 in one of the more appallingly glaring money saves in a team history full of them. All he did with the rest of his 2010 season was win an NLCS MVP award with the eventual champion Giants so, you know, clearly cooked.

That 9.4 Marlins WAR? Better than Jazz Chisholm. Better than Dee Strange-Gordon. Better than Preston Wilson. He had the second three-homer game in franchise history, against the Mets no less. He put up back to back 20-plus homer seasons, studly production that probably got a little lost in the shuffle for those power heavy 2008 and 2009 rosters.

Of course, it wasn't all about the pop with Ross. Fellow No. 12 jersey wearer Jorge Soler belted 36 HRs for the Marlins in 2023 and only racked up 1.6 points of WAR doing it- a total Ross surpassed every Marlins season but that first 2006 one he wasn't a regular. I'd imagine plenty younger series readers had been waiting for that Soler shoutout.

But if we're being honest, there is only one honorable mention worth mentioning for the Miami Marlins in the No. 12 jersey:

Michael Howard Mordecai.

Despite a negative WAR Marlins career (-1.0 to be exact), you'd be more hardpressed to find a player who came up bigger for Miami. Plugged in for a series of clutch hits for the 2003 champion Fish, none were bigger than a 3-RBI double in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. It doesn't get much bigger than that.

Marlins career in No. 12 overall, though? It's Ross by a mile.

Back next time at No. 11 with a much closer battle.