Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 14: Josh Willingham

If only MLB players didn't need backs, eh Miami Marlins fans?

For those of you that remember the Marlins playing days of Josh Willingham, you'll remeber well the bevy of injuries he dealt with. Back strains, herniated disks, he ran the full gauntlet from the jump, which would seem to make it a pretty good decision on the part of him and his coaches to give up the whole catching thing and settle in at outfielder.

Admittedly, this sounds like an odd way to start a piece meant to sing the praises of the player Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series has deemed the best to ever don the No. 14 jersey. Yet a review of his stats brings all this back to mind on account of just how remarkably productive he was despite all the time he did miss. In fact, in my mind's eye, this author will confess to having believed Willingham missed far more time due to injury than he actually did during his Marlins career.

When he was on the field though, Willingham was a force to be reckoned with. Top 25 all-time with the Miami Marlins in WAR (6.2), home runs (63), and batting average (.266). Despite never having had more than 8 stolen bases in a single season, he's somehow tied with Ichiro Suzuki and Preston Wilson on the Marlins all-time triples list with 11. That last one is less about being impressive and more just about sharing the shock.

His most injury plagued season was also his best, a 2.7 WAR effort for the 2008 Marlins team that was likely the closest that core came to breaking through and making the playoffs. If Willingham had been around for more than 102 games that year, is Marlins history different? Perhaps. Certainly, he would have made it three straight seasons over twenty homers. As it was, it had been one injury too many right around the time he and others of that group were going up in price. He was traded for Emilio Bonifacio that winter, setting up one of the greatest Opening Days in franchise history...and also the unfortunate need to wonder whether or not the 2009 Marlins would have made the playoffs if they had just rode things out with Willingham for one more season.

Honorable mentions? Martin Prado is right behind him with 5.5 WAR worth of Marlins service time. It's a placement on the list that probably surprises a few of you, but you're guilty of forgetting the extreme suddeness with which he started to pumpkin after the 2016 season. In 2015 and 2016, Prado was one of the best players on the team with finishes of 3.4 and 3.6 WAR respectively. His last three years though? Never better than 0.4 WAR, bottoming out with a -1.4 WAR effort in 2019. And for the Boomers and Gen Xers among us, I could also throw out Jerry Browne of the strike shortened Marlins. He was sneaky awesome in 1994, batting .294 with a .392 OBP.

Yet if you want what was just the most impressive season ever by a Marlins player in the No. 14 jersey, the answer probably has to be Adam Dunn of the 2021 Fish. As you might recall, Duvall hit 22 HRs by the trade deadline that season before being traded on account of the team forgetting he was still arbitration eligible for 2022. So if nothing else, it's possible some No. 14 jersey trivia helped set things in motion for Bruce Sherman realizing the front office needed some tinkering.

Then again, that might be reading into things too much. Speaking of which, we'll catch you later this week with a number that a great many Marlins players appear to have been guilty of doing just that with.