It's Time to Extend Mike Stanton

Marlins OFer Mike Stanton is putting up a solid year and just might be in line for a nice new contract. He has a 3 WAR, .1 more then all of last year but the thing that really stands out about Mike Stanton is his massive power. Last year in 100 games Stanton hit 22 home runs to go along with a .248 ISO. His wOBA of .355 was solid for a rookie and this year he's brought that up to a .370 wOBA which is typically in the seventy fifth percentile. His strikeout rate was a little concerning last year, striking out 31.1% but if he can bring that down and still supply good power numbers, a good ISO and wOBA then it shouldn't be too concerning.

This year he's doing much better. He has 25 home runs in 106 games, his ISO is twenty three points higher, currently at .271 which is good for fifth in baseball and second in the National League. Stanton's wOBA is fifteen points higher then last year, sitting at .370 like I mentioned before. He's brought his strikeout percentage down to 27.3%, if he can bring it down to around 25% that would be ideal but again other factos make up for it. His wRC+ of 133 is fifteen points higher then last year putting him in around the seventy fifth percentile. Offensively about the only thing Stanton won't give you is stolen bases but that isn't a big deal.

So far he's posted solid UZR numbers, posting a 8.7 UZR this year and a 2 UZR last year. That's only from one and a half seasons though so the sample size is still small and not much should be taken from those numbers yet.

Based on dollar values Stanton has been worth $13.3 million this year and $11.4 last year giving the Marlins over $24.7 million dollars of value.

Based on all this information the Marlins need to give Stanton a contract similar to Longoria's 5 year $16 million dollar deal that he signed in 2008. The contract can be worth up to 44 million dollars as it has a few uption years but it's easily the most friendly contract in all of baseball. If the Marlins want to sign Stanton cheap they'll need to do it before he hits superstardom.