Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 27: Giancarlo Stanton

Ever hear of Miami Marlins career home run leader Giancarlo Stanton?

Yeah, that's what I figured. Not much room for creative flourish, dramatic revelation, or teaching moments for the young Marlins fan here. There won't be many more predictable outcomes during Marlin Maniac's Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series than this one here at No. 27 with Stanton.

As mentioned, he's the Miami Marlins career leader in homers, clocking in at 267. He's also the franchise leader in WAR (35.9), RBIs (672), and total bases (1,983). Want to have some fun to grasp his dominance of Miami's record books? Count the first two years of his career when he went by Mike instead of Giancarlo as a separate player. "Mike" Stanton would have the twenty-second highest WAR finish in franchise history. Meanwhile, "Giancarlo" Stanton would still be No. 1 in terms of WAR and homers.

What makes this stop at No. 27 in the Marlins jersey series interesting is that it took a player with this dominant of a Marlins career to take the honors.

For if you go strictly by the WAR with the Marlins in the jersey metric we've been using thus far, you get two players that led the club in saves in a given season, a first round draft pick that spent years as an everyday player, a one year cameo by a player that ended up being a Top 15 Marlins career slugger, and two Top 15 Marlins career pitchers. All of that in addition to Stanton, whom many consider the best Marlins player ever.

Admittedly, this author would probably slide a few players in front of him for that distinction. One of them would be one of those Top 15 Marlins pitchers, 1997 World Champion Kevin Brown. Brown pitched in Miami for only two seasons...and still has the fourth highest pitching WAR (14.9) in Marlins history. That's...insane? Although, the fact that the other aforementioned Top 15 pitcher is already current Marlin Edward Cabrera might be a crazier factoid still. Back to Brown, he threw 11 complete games and five shutouts, including the franchise's second no-hitter.

When Brown was traded, the headliner coming back to Miami was the winner of the technical answer award, Derrek Lee. However, he only spent his rookie year as No. 27, before switching to a number we'll be discussing not too long from now for the remainder of his Marlins career. Jeremy Hermida wore it his entire Marlins career, so that was the number on his back when he famously hit a grand slam in his first MLB at bat. Vladimir Nunez and Brandon Kintzler were the two closers who enjoyed some success with it. Beyond that? It's been kicked around a lot. Three different players wore it in 1995, and the same thing happened again in 2005. Indeed, it's the number that has been the most worn of any that will appear in this Marlins jersey number series.

Ultimately though, you have to be impressed by what Stanton did for the Marlins with the No. 27 jersey. On top of all those career marks, he's the clubhouse leader in the bulk of the single-season marks as well. He was often one of those must-see-tv types, especially when he was winning the Home Run Derby in 2016 or clubbing a franchise best 59 HRs and 132 RBI during his 2017 NL MVP campaign.

Those are the kind of single season numbers that could easily stand as Miami Marlins records forever. But here's hoping that someday, some of those career numbers start to look like they might be in jeopardy.

Until then, hopefully you enjoyed this look back at the illustrious Marlins career of Miami's most prolific home run slugger. Especially since the team will spend the next three years paying him again.