Former Miami Marlins player's Hall of Fame case

Do you remember former Miami Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton? The slugger is actually still The Fish's all-time home run leader with 267 round-trippers. The question facing the current New York Yankees DH is whether he can make it to the Hall of Fame. He still has popularity among the Marlins fanbase so it's an intriguing question.

Can former Miami Marlins RF Giancarlo Stanton make the Hall of Fame?

Let's start with the WAR benchmark for the Hall of Fame. That mark is at 50.0 on average. Giancarlo Stanton has the career WAR of 44.6 at his current age of 34 years old. Realistically, he can probably play until 38-39 years old as he's been pretty injury prone throughout his career.

To be honest, I'm not sure why he's so popular among our fanbase. I watched his whole career from the start and was never a big fan of his skillset. He struck out way too much and could never seem to stay healthy. Both major warning signs long-term. He had a promising start from 2010 to 2016. During that time, he batted .266/.357/.539 in 827 games and 2980 AB. He had trouble staying healthy, in those seven seasons he only played over 120 games 3 times.

The 2017 season is of course fondly remembered, as he batted .281/.376/.631, with 59 home runs and 132 RBI in 159 games and 597 AB. He was worth 7.9 WAR and won the NL MVP award. In a stupid move, Jeffrey Loria, the outgoing owner extended him for 13 years/$325 million. It was ill-advisable because I knew that it wouldn't age well. I expected him to only be productive for a few years and worse this lowered his trade value. The reason why? He was traded almost immediately after.

It was worse than I expected, though overall I was right on the money about the contract. Giancarlo Stanton batted .266/.343/.509, with 38 home runs and 100 RBI in 158 games and 617 AB. That was his first season with the New York Yankees. He was worth 4.4 WAR. It all went downhill from there. From 2019 to 2024 (as of Tuesday), he's batted just .233/.316/.474. He was even more injury-prone as he played over 120 games only once in those 6 seasons.

I don't see how Giancarlo Stanton makes the Hall of Fame. 500 home runs is one of the benchmarks and he's at 427. If he hits 20 home runs a year, he needs around 4 seasons to reach that total. I don't know about that though, as I can easily see a massive decline around the corner. Even if he reaches the benchmark, he's a career .258/.345/.526 hitter. He had his moments, but the Hall of Fame is for "great" not "good" players. Stanton doesn't fit the former. He was good with the Miami Marlins and mostly awful for the New York Yankees.