Miami Marlins Best To Wear Jersey Number Series No. 29: Braxton Garrett

The competition for this Miami Marlins jersey battle was pretty slim as it turned out.

So without further ado, the Marlin Maniac Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series gives you Braxton Garrett.

Partly, one does tend to stand out when they are far and away the most impactful Miami Marlins first round draft pick in a decade. Hopefully some of the more recent selections will end up taking over the top spot before too long, but Garrett takes the cake here pretty easily even with multiple seasons missed due to injury. When available, he's been a more than solid option in Miami's pitching arsenal.

And as it turns out, "more than solid" carries a lot of weight when it comes to Marlins players to don the No. 29 jersey.

More than a few Marlins World Series winners and All-Stars have graced this series so far, with two big ones appearing in the most recent No. 30 installment. At No. 29 though, pickings are slim. There is a World Series winner on the list in Armando Almanza, but his -0.9 WAR in 2003 was a touch worse than I remembered. Joining the ranks of not-as-impactful-WAR-wise as I expected are a pair of only remembered by the real ones guys in Greg Dobbs in Ronny Paulino. Paulino was a very solid catcher for the 2009 and 2010 seasons, whereas Dobbs was a pinch hitting standout for the Fish from 2011 to 2014. Yet both of those Marlins careers failed to even tally up to half of what Garrett has done for Miami to this point.

The closest contender for a technical answer/honorable mention award here would I suppose go to Gaby Sanchez by virtue of what he did to Nyjer Morgan in one of the more colorful moments in franchise history. Miami's current broadcaster and one-time first baseman wore the number for a year in 2008. However, even with an All-Star appearance in 2011, Sanchez entire Marlins career WAR also lags well behind the 4.6 WAR Garrett has recorded in the No. 29 jersey and his 5.8 WAR with Miami overall. One could also make an emotional case for Francisco Cervelli, who was huge in Miami's 2020 Covid season run to the expanded playoffs during the final season of his MLB career.

Back to Garrett though, he's done more than enough to earn this spot on merit. He was hands down one of the Marlins best players in 2023, outshone WAR-wise by only Luis Arraez and Jesus Luzardo. He's also the only Marlins pitcher not named Sandy Alcantara to have thrown a nine-inning complete game for the franchise since 2018. Sixto Sanchez technically did it in one of those 2020 seven-inning doubleheaders, but it's just Brax and Sandy for going the whole nine for the past seven seasons.

Hopefully, Garrett gets a chance to pad his lead here, and returns to the Marlins rotation in 2026.