Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 17: A.J. Ellis

If you had no idea which Miami Marlins player was going to appear in this spot, you're forgiven.

Because I'll let you in on a little secret- I didn't either. And not in that fun "Will Mike Lowell win out over Jeff Conine" or "Was Kyle Stowers awesome enough last year to already surpass Trevor Rogers" kind of way we've encountered previously in Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series. No, this was genuine "Who in the world wore No. 17, period" level confusion, followed by some genuine puzzlement as to anyone who did so was ever actually good.

The long answer to that question is...no, not really. The slightly shorter answer? A.J. Ellis.

One solid year as J.T. Realmuto's backup in 2017, where he hit an absurd 6 HRs in just 51 ABs while also providing some very solid defense gives him the honors here with a grand Marlins WAR total of...0.6.

That's right, 0.6 WAR. That's the best work this jersey has seen and about as much backstory on Ellis as you are going to get here.

For those of you that did remember Mike Jacobs wore this number and are confused, two things. Firstly, a tip of the cap- could not have told you what number Jacobs wore for the life of me. But for those of you Jacobs-stans who are wrestling with how someone that once hit 32 HRs in a season for the Marlins, and never less than 17 across three seasons...I must remind you that are guilty of forgetting how egregiously bad Jacobs was at both playing defense and getting on base. That 2008 season with the 32 HRs? Jacobs had a dWAR of -3.2 and a .297 OBP. Two similar seasons leave Jacobs with a career Marlins WAR of -2.9 and the dubious position of being both the most memorable player to wear the No. 17 jersey while not being remotely the best when put under the microscope.

Another honorable mention would be Ramon Castro, who spent parts of six seasons with the Marlins, including the 2003 championship season that saw him club 5 HRs and put up a .283 batting average. Yet all his efforts come out to precisely zero WAR-wise after a terrible 2004 where the power faded and clearing the Mendoza Line became a distant memory.

Some other notables cropped up as well. Chad Wallach. Donovan Solano. Todd Dunwoody for you oldies out there. Yet the closest competition Ellis received here was actually Vidal Brujan in 2024. Lost amid a horribly disappointing season for the Marlins as a team, and overshadowed by some pretty underwhelming offensive production, Brujan was a pretty good defender for Miami...almost good enough to claim the distinction of Best To Wear No. 17 for Miami.

Ellis edged him out by a tenth of a point, 0.6 to 0.5 on the Marlins WAR scoreboard.

So there you have it! Back next time with some names no one should have any problems remembering.