Stanton, Marlins, $325 Million. Yikes!

The biggest offseason news to hit Major League Baseball has arrived.

The Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton, the monster formerly known as Mike, and team ownership have reached a deal that could keep the superstar in south Florida through 2027. Celebrating his 25th birthday just 10 days ago, Stanton inked a 13-year/$325 million deal Monday. Details – it’s heavily backloaded, there’s an opt-out clause in five years and he cannot be traded – continue to leak before a presser officially announcing the deal on Wednesday.

But at the end of the day, this is a mammoth deal with huge implications on the NL East. Obviously this solidifies a major piece in a surprisingly-competitive Marlin team. Stanton is a true masher at the plate in a post-steroidal world where offensive numbers come to die. Five years into his early career, Stanton averages almost 31 home runs a season with a .268/.361/.537 slash with a handful of steals every year for good measure. He’s no slouch on defense either. The right fielder was a finalist for a 2014 Golden Glove and sabremetrics suggest he’s slightly above average in making plays on live balls.

Yikes!

His numbers against NL East opponents are strong overall, but bandbox Citizen’s Bank Park hasn’t yielded the best numbers – that honor goes to Washington’s Nationals Park. He’s slashed .211/.297/.317 in 138 plate appearances against Atlanta compared to .336/.425/.763 opposing the Nationals. And In just those first five years, he’s hit 110 home runs in 460 games against NL East opponents.

Thankfully, Stanton’s new contract silences endless trade rumors and free agency speculation – he could have become a free agent in 2017 prior to this deal. It proves team owner Jeffrey Loria would have demanded Noah Syndergaard and/or Zack Wheeler plus several other major prospects and players from Mets GM Sandy Alderson.

It also marks a change in the Marlins’ strategy. Miami/Florida has been in the bottom among team payrolls for the past decade. Their $46.5 million payroll for Opening Day 2014 was the second lowest. They were second lowest in 2013, 2011 and 2007, seventh lowest in 2011, fifth lowest in 2010, at the bottom in 2009, 2008 and 2006. The only time they approached a normal payroll was the façade of 2012 when Loria signed and traded for expensive players to give them a $118 million payroll before shedding like crazy mid-season. Stanton’s deal is backloaded, but for the sake of convenience, it averages $25 million a year. That alone would be more than half of their 2014 payroll, which does not account for $25 million among another nine players. Miami also has several young players like starting pitcher Tom Koehler, center fielder Marcell Ozuna and left fielder Christian Yellich who will receive major raises from the league minimum $500,000 before long.

Unless Miami intends on surrounding Stanton with 24 rookies, has-beens and no-names, their annual payroll for the foreseeable future must rise. And even if Loria does pump more funds into his team – which may shock Marlins fans more than the Stanton signing, he still staked his team’s future almost entirely in one player. Better hope he doesn’t get hurt.

Yikes!