The New York Yankees and Miami Marlins have agreed to a trade that would send reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton to the Bronx, according to ESPN and multiple reports Saturday.
The trade has yet to become official, as Stanton must still agree to the terms as stipulated by his no-trade clause and pass a physical.
Yankees infielder Starlin Castro would go to Miami as part of the deal, a source confirmed to ESPN after it was first reported by The Associated Press. New York would also send prospects Jorge Guzman and Jose Devers to the Marlins in the trade, according to multiple reports and first reported by the New York Post.
Stanton, 28, is owed $295 million over the next 10 years. The Yankees would be on the hook for $265 million of that, with the Marlins kicking in $30 million as part of the deal, according to multiple reports and first reported by The Athletic.
Stanton has the right to opt out of his contract and become a free agent after receiving $77 million over the next three seasons.
Talks between the Yankees and Marlins, whose new CEO is former Yankees captain Derek Jeter, picked up Friday after the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants both released statements saying Stanton would not waive his no-trade clause for those teams.
The Yankees had thought that any deal for Stanton was completely out of the question, given their luxury-tax concerns and the early demands of the Marlins, but other teams dropping out led New York and Miami to re-engage in talks earlier this week.
Stanton, just the sixth player to win the MVP award while playing for a losing team, led the majors this past season in home runs (59), RBIs (132), extra-base hits (91) and slugging percentage (.631), each of which set a Marlins single-season record, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
His 59 home runs were the most in the majors since 2001, when Barry Bonds hit a record 73 and Sammy Sosa had 64.
If Stanton agrees to the deal, he would join sluggers Aaron Judge, who led the American League with 52 home runs last season, and Gary Sanchez, who hit 33, in the Yankees' lineup for new manager Aaron Boone.
Their power in 2017 goes well beyond their home run totals.
Judge and Stanton had the two highest average exit velocities on home runs last season, according to Statcast (minimum 10 homers) -- Judge at 110.0 mph and Stanton at 109.3. They combined for 47 batted balls with an exit velocity of 115-plus mph, while the rest of MLB combined had 39 such batted balls, according to Statcast. The two also combined for the eight hardest-hit batted balls in the majors last season (Judge with five) and nine of the top 10.
In his eight seasons with the Marlins, Stanton, a career .268 hitter, has belted 267 home runs and has 672 RBIs. He has never played on a winning team; the Yankees reached Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last season.
The four-time All-Star selection was the 76th player taken in the 2007 draft. Of those taken before him, 21 have played fewer than 100 games in the majors and 27 never made a big league debut.
Saturday's news sparked reaction throughout the baseball world on social media.
Hey @Giancarlo818....👊 pic.twitter.com/0542MWBIpv
— Aaron Judge (@TheJudge44) December 9, 2017
@AaronBoone Hey Skip am i still batting 4th ??? pic.twitter.com/oUadnUmf7i
— Sir Didi Gregorius (@DidiG18) December 9, 2017
Patiently waiting 🤤🤪🤞🏼
— Sonny Gray (@SonnyGray2) December 9, 2017
In Las Vegas, oddsmakers at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook moved the Yankees' odds of winning the 2018 World Series from 8-1 to 6-1 on Saturday morning. The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently the favorite at 9-2 odds.
It would be the second season in a row that the Yankees would obtain the National League home run champion. Chris Carter hit 41 homers for Milwaukee in 2016 but was released by the Yankees in July after hitting .201 with eight homers in 208 plate appearances.
Sources told ESPN's Andrew Marchand that the Yankees' luxury tax number for Stanton's salary will be $22 million or slightly less. When combined with what they'll save by unloading Castro's contract, the Yankees will fall under the luxury tax this winter.
The Yankees' payroll for purposes of baseball's luxury tax was about $209 million this year, and owner Hal Steinbrenner had promised to reduce it below next year's $197 million threshold, which would reset the team's base tax rate from 50 percent to 20 percent in 2019. That would put the Yankees in better position for next offseason's free-agent class, which includes Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and possibly Clayton Kershaw.
Alex Rodriguez ($27.5 million) comes off the team's payroll after this season, and five high-priced Yankees have become free agents: CC Sabathia ($20 million), Matt Holliday ($13 million), Michael Pineda ($7.4 million), Todd Frazier ($4,918,033) and Jaime Garcia ($4,961,721).
After missing out on Japanese right-hander Shohei Ohtani, the Yankees are expected to seek starting pitching to bolster a rotation currently projected to include Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery and Luis Cessa.
Stanton would take a cut in take-home pay for his games in the Bronx. While Florida has no state income tax, New York State has an 8.82 percent top rate on income and New York City a 3.876 percent top rate.
Meanwhile, Jeter is expected to reduce the Marlins' payroll by at least 20 percent to $90 million or less. The Marlins shed $38 million of salary through 2020 by trading two-time All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon to the Seattle Mariners on Thursday for three prospects.
If Stanton OKs the trade, Castro, who hit .300 with 16 home runs this year, would be a candidate to replace Gordon at second base for the Marlins. However, Castro might also be dealt by Miami because of his contract as he's due $10 million in 2018 and $11 million in 2019, with a club option of $16 million in the final year of his contract in 2020.
Gleyber Torres, a 20-year-old infield prospect for New York, thanked his teammate in a tweet.
Wish you the best of luck my brother...forever grateful for helping me with everything I've needed and for all the good advice..! pic.twitter.com/bLfVczhT7D
— Gleyber Torres (@TorresGleyber) December 10, 2017
Gary Denbo, the Marlins' new vice president of scouting and player development, has familiarity with Guzman and Devers -- the two prospects who would join the Marlins as part of the deal -- as he's spent the past eight years with the Yankees and oversaw a farm system that ranks among the best in baseball.
Guzman joined the Yankees as part of the trade that sent catcher Brian McCann to the Houston Astros in November 2016. Guzman went 5-3 with a 2.30 ERA in 13 starts for Class A Staten Island in 2017.
Devers, the cousin of Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, is an 18-year-old who hit .245 with 16 RBIs in 53 games of rookie-ball play this year.
More Marlins deals are possible at the winter meetings beginning Sunday in Orlando, Florida, with Castro and outfielders Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna possibly on the trading block.
ESPN's Buster Olney, Andrew Marchand and the Associated Press contributed to this report.