Giancarlo Stanton Reportedly Cleared Waivers, Marlins Can Trade Him to Any Team

Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton reportedly cleared revocable trade waivers Sunday, making the slugger eligible to get moved to any MLB team before the end of August.

On Tuesday, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports noted the majors' current leader in home runs has received interest from at least four teams despite his monster contract, which is slated to pay him at least $25 million in base salary every year through 2028 starting next season.

Stanton is enjoying a huge season for the Marlins. He's posted a .283/.374/.640 triple-slash line with 43 homers, 93 runs batted in and 89 runs scored across 115 games. Along with his MLB-best HR total, he also ranks fifth in baseball in OPS at 1.014.

While those numbers raise questions about why the front office would want to trade the face of the franchise now, a source provided Yahoo Sports with the alternative point of view.

"Anyone who knows anything knows you sell high on him," the source told Passan. "You can relieve yourself of that burden."

Stanton's comments throughout the season suggest he wouldn't mind a change of scenery.

In May, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald relayed remarks the right fielder made about his frustration level with the organization's inability to contend.

"It's probably the highest ever," Stanton said. "It's higher than me being the worst player on the field for a month, the worst player in the big leagues for a month, last year."

Then, after the Marlins traded pitcher A.J. Ramos in late July, he lamented the constant cycle of trading current assets for players who won't help the big-league club for a while, per Craig Davis of the Sun Sentinel.

"Every trade for minor-leaguers is two or three years away from seeing the result of that trade," Stanton said. "That means two or three years of every person taken away is a couple years until you realize what that means."

"The same thing every year," he added about the team's stance as a seller before the non-waiver trade deadline.

Ultimately, there are a limited number of clubs that can afford to pay Stanton's massive salary and still have the financial resources to maintain a championship team around him in the future. But there's no doubt adding him for the stretch run of the regular season and the playoffs could be a title-winning move.