5 Marlins who have best chance to represent Miami in Baseball Hall of Fame

Another year of voting, another year where the Miami Marlins won't have a player representing them in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

That's the unfortunate result of last Tuesday's inexplicable news that Gary Sheffield was found to be unworthy of Cooperstown in his final year on the ballot. The voters failed Sheffield, Marlins fans, and any baseball fan who ever found themselves holding anything resembling a stick and imitating his incomparable batting stance. While it wasn't exactly written in stone (bronze?) that Sheffield would have worn a Marlins cap if selected, Miami will remain without a Hall of Famer to call their very own.

Of course, the Miami Marlins aren't alone in that respect. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays are also without a Hall of Famer. And if you started following baseball in 2005, then the Washington Nationals don't have one, either (multiple Expos are in the Hall). Some of this is due to the still relatively young age of the franchise. Sheffield's candidacy is a perfect demonstration of that reality: a player that was with the team in their inaugural season (1993) was still eligible to be voted for today in 2024. Most of it is due to a mess of their own making. Decades of penury and rebuilds have robbed Miami of having all that many shots at even getting Hall of Fame talent on the roster to begin with, let alone having Hall of Fame talent long enough to make them consider picking a teal cap when they get the call.

Currently, only five players enshrined in Cooperstown have even played a game for Miami. Of those five, only Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez did so in anything close to the prime of their career. Piazza was in Miami for a week before being traded; Rodriguez helped the team win their second championship. Prior to that, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines (two of your three Expos/Nationals) were also there, but on the very last legs of their storied careers. Trevor Hoffman began his career in Miami, only to be traded for...Sheffield himself. Obviously, Jim Leyland won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997 as their manager, and will join Tony Perez as the second enshrinee to have managed Miami. Not a Marlins cap among them, though, and that situation won't change when the greatest Marlins player ever- Miguel Cabrera- makes it in on the first ballot four years from now. At this point, he's as Detroit as Barry Sanders and Ty Cobb.

All of which begs the question, just who will be the first Baseball Hall of Famer to represent the Miami Marlins? Will it ever happen? And if so, when?

Now, the most likely answer to this question is some player that no one has ever heard of, or at the very least one that won't even play in the majors until 2027 at the earliest. However, that's not much fun, is it? Not to mention of very little comfort to Marlins fans mourning Sheffield's failed bid.

So what follows here will be a rundown of the five most likely players you have heard of, that have already played many games in a Miami Marlins uniform, that could one day go on to represent the Magic City in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Starting with...

Miami Marlins Hall of Famer No. 5 - Giancarlo Stanton

First up, how about the only Miami Marlins player to ever win an MVP award as a Marlin?

That's just what Giancarlo Stanton was in 2017, his eighth and final season in a Marlins uniform. That year saw him set the franchise record for home runs at 59 -- a total that, by the way, only six other players have done in MLB history, and only three of which did so without the taint of a steroids scandal. In doing so, he also set the franchise single-season marks for WAR and RBI. He holds the Marlins career records for WAR, home runs, and RBI by a country mile. Only two players in franchise history have more games played in Marlins colors. Sheffield doesn't even crack the Top 10 on that list, by the way.

It's a heck of a resume. Sadly, there are plenty of warts worth mentioning. For starters, he never exactly seemed pumped to be a Miami Marlin, did he? Had he ever expressed any warmth about that fact, even when signing an extension worth a then-MLB record sum of $325 million, he would be much higher on this list. If Stanton gets any good excuse to not pick Miami, he won't pick Miami. However, there is a much bigger problem than any ill-will he may or may not harbor towards the organization.

Stanton has been gone for six seasons, all with the Yankees, and only two of those seasons have seen him look anything remotely like a player worthy of Cooperstown.

So...that's two problems. For one, much of the "Stanton as a Hall of Fame Marlin" case depends on the bulk of his career being with Miami, which gives the Yankees two seasons to cut or trade him before they'd pull ahead in that respect. Of course, it's not just about service time, but productive service time. His Miami tenure leaps off the page in that respect. Yet if he continues to play at the level he has, or worse, is he a Hall of Famer? Quite possibly not.

Should Stanton either have another elite season in a Yankees uniform, or win a championship, that probably seals his commitment to going in as a Yankee if elected. It's the most likely scenario, especially with Juan Soto now in the fold.

But what if he continues to struggle compared to expectations, yet also keeps accumulating? What if the Yankees do find a way to move on? What if he does make it into the 500 HR club and then some? Passing Sheffield, passing Cabrera, on the all-time homer list and doing so without any hint of steroid talk? Would the Hall of Fame voters keep out a member of that once illustrious club, even if every other metric might suggest Stanton wasn't really that great? I'm not convinced they would.

One last thought here that could cinch his case, before moving on. What if he came back to Miami? He's only 34, and will be 38 when his deal ends. Albert Pujols played until he was 42. Nelson Cruz made it to 43. Furthermore, the Marlins will already be paying him $10 million a year for the last three years of his contract, as per the conditions of the trade that sent him to New York in the first place. If Stanton is dumped onto the market at any point between now and then, it's well within the range of possibility that Miami decides to get something for the money they are already spending anyway. After that time? He'd arguably have more value to Miami than any other team in baseball. What Marlins fan wouldn't come out to watch him chase 500, or possibly even 600, HRs?

Ultimately though, the Yankees are probably going to go on a run one of these next couple years and make this moot, if Stanton's play doesn't make the case moot on its own. Which means Miami could well have a much better chance with...

Miami Marlins Hall of Famer No. 4 - Luis Arraez

Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez is a hitting machine, pure and simple.

Now, as to whether or not that's enough to get into the Hall of Fame...that remains to be seen. Arraez is very much a one trick pony. He does not hit for power, he's not a fast runner. He's a competent fielder, but for how long? As a slow middle infielder without a strong arm that doesn't hit for power, how long can Arraez stick in the starting lineup?

Obviously, none of that is a 2024 problem. Right now, Arraez is arguably the Miami Marlins' best offensive weapon. It's not even a 2028 problem, which is why the Marlins should waste no time extending him. As a two-time batting champion, he's one of the more unique hitters in MLB.

However, it really is just that hit tool that gives him any chance of ever making a case for Cooperstown. Which means he needs to keep doing it. Keep accumulating. A lot. For a long time. The Tony Gwynn comp was made often last season, as their career pace through their age-26 seasons was actually pretty similar. Gwynn played until he was 41, though, and was a five-time Gold Glove winner in the outfield. Granted his last two seasons did very little to aid his Hall of Fame case, but he did hit .338 as a 39-year old in 1999. Over twenty MLB seasons, he hit below .300 once.

Considering how much harder the act of hitting over .300 has gotten, Arraez wouldn't necessarily have to match Gwynn. Then again, once you adjust for the lack of elite defense, he probably has to come pretty close. That's an extremely daunting task. After all, there's a reason someone who retired 18 seasons before Arraez started playing was the only real comparison for what he was doing at the plate last year. Hitting that well, that consistently is hard. It must also be stressed that, even with last year's rule changes, hitting that well is way harder than it was when Gwynn was playing. Just to offer the simplest means of comparison, in that same aforementioned 1999 season, the average MLB batter hit .270 at the plate. In 2023? A mere .248 average. So Arraez is more of a unicorn right now, but holds that status just entering his prime. Once he loses a step at the plate, though? Today's pitching might bring regression about much more sharply.

What if he does keep going though, a perrennial .300 hitter? At least for the next ... call it, five seasons (not coincidentally, a number that would make him Hall of Fame eligible and get him to 10). Already, Arraez has two batting titles in his career. One in each league no less, a feat that is already getting his name on a sign somewhere in a certain baseball museum. What if gets a third, though? Just a third, repeating as batting champion one more time at some point during his Miami Marlins tenure?

In that event, history would suggest he has a very good chance at making it into the Hall.

Thus far in baseball history, there are twenty-nine players who have won three or more batting titles in their careers. If you assume election for Jose Altuve and Miguel Cabrera, then twenty-five of those players are Hall of Famers. That leaves just four elite hitters on the outside looking in.

The odds are even a bit better than that, though. Of those four, two are ineligible for Hall of Fame consideration. Ross Barnes of the National Association only played for nine seasons, not the required 10. The other ineligible? Pete Rose, famously banned for betting on baseball. Down to two then.

That leaves just Pete Browning and Bill Madlock as multiple time batting champs that aren't in the Hall of Fame. Browning debuted in 1882, and played mostly for teams that don't exist anymore. However, Madlock on the other hand...that's actually a fair comp. An infielder without a ton of pop that played in the modern era that wasn't great at much else beyond hitting? Sounds a lot like Arraez outside of the fact he still hit 163 HR in his career, which might be 100 more than Arraez will end up with. Madlock won four batting titles, and still isn't in.

That's a thought that should keep Marlins fans up at night, assuming of course the team extends him. All evidence so far is that one of those is not forthcoming, and there have been more trade rumors attached to his name than rumors mentioning extension talks. He's only under team control for two more seasons, which unfortunately means that he has less than two seasons left with the Marlins before he's dealt. If he's not extended...the circumstances where he enters the Hall of Fame sporting a Marlins cap involve another batting title in 2024. Oh, and also a championship parade.

Sign me up! In all seriousness though, it's not a very realistic prospect. As opposed to this next player, who you could argue has the best Hall chance (for some team) of any player on the list.

Miami Marlins Hall of Famer No. 2- Eury Perez

This next player on the list of prospective Miami Marlins Hall of Famers is all about potential.

That's really all fans know of Eury Perez at this point, Miami's flame throwing prospect that only ascended to the majors last season because of a massive rash of starting pitching injuries. He only threw 91.1 IP last season before being shutdown on account of SI-joint inflammation. That was enough to graduate him the list of the game's top prospects, but is still a very small sample size to draw any Hall of Fame conclusions from.

On the other hand, it was a brilliant sample size for a rookie. Perez posted a 3.15 ERA in his debut season. Impressive on its own, that number is inflated by a rough second half that saw him demoted for a time to manage his innings, and likely includes a couple appearances where he was pitching through the injury that ultimately ended his season. In the first half, he was looking like one of the better pitchers in baseball. For the season, he had a sub 2.00 ERA in his home ballpark. If you want a simpler demonstration of his powers, I could tell you about the time he struck out Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in the fourth game of his big league career. If you want more advanced numbers, check out the Stuff+ projections on Eno Sarris' latest fantasy rankings. That list sees Perez sitting at No. 22 overall, with better Stuff+ numbers than reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Zac Gallen, among many other splashier names. Not bad for a pitcher who won't turn 21 until the third week of the 2024 season.

The sky could well be the limit for Perez- a possibility that is the entire basis for his being placed so highly on this list.

Well that, and just how much longer the Miami Marlins have him under contract. Perez won't be a free agent until 2030, and won't even be eligible for arbitration until 2027. What if he really is the next great MLB pitcher? What if he spends at least three to four more seasons pitching like an All-Star for Miami, maybe even pulling down his own Cy Young award? If he spent all six of those remaining seasons in South Florida, he's probably the Marlins franchise leader in every major pitching category.

It's not impossible. Honestly, it's more likely than you've read so far in this article. The biggest obstacle to it happening has nothing to do with talent but, just as was the case with Alcantara, it has everything to do with Miami's probable payroll constraints. Unfortunately, the financial realities of the team probably have Perez gone by his second year of arbitration. However, if he were to be extended to the type of long-term deal that would allow the Marlins to potentially enjoy elite pitching production without having to pay market value for it...

That ship probably sailed the moment he struck out Ohtani last May. If it does still happen though, he's the best chance the Marlins have at getting someone in their organization into the Hall of Fame. Again, that's in the organization...

Miami Marlins Hall of Famer No. 1- Gary Sheffield

At the end of the day though, the Miami Marlins best case for having a player make the Hall of Fame is probably still the player that was just told no this past Tuesday.

That'd be Gary Sheffield, one of the two greatest hitters to ever wear a Marlins uniform. Of course, that statement dramatically understates his brilliance. Sheffield is arguably one of the five greatest hitters to play the game of baseball, period, in the last 30 years. The only reason any doubt may exist as to his place atop Marlins offensive history is that Miguel Cabrera played here too once upon a time, and is another player that qualifies for both those lists. Flip a coin between those two.

Obviously, there are a few significant obstacles to Sheffield entering Cooperstown. He was terrible defensively. He played for multiple teams. No reason to dive into all of that again, as it has all been brought up time and again over the last couple months as Hall of Fame resumes were parsed and rehashed on multiple platforms in multiple formats. Deficiencies brought up ad nauseam because they sounded more insightful than "once upon a time in the offseason my workout buddy handed me a tube of steroid cream."

Yes, Sheffield was mentioned in the Mitchell Report. He admitted on the record to just that, applying some cream to his knees once. No lies on the record. No failed tests. No proof that his performance ever benefited at all from the use. That's very different from cream supplier Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, and your other favorite steroid users. Yet it's a difference that it would appear nearly forty percent of the BBWAA chose not to appreciate.

I'll confess to not being entirely convinced the Veteran's Committee is going to see it that way when they get their chance to right this wrong a few years from now.

That being said, they probably will. Enough of them anyway. Yet are the odds of my being right about the Veteran's Committee believing Sheffield to be if not entirely innocent, at least as innocent David Ortiz, worse than of the other scenarios mentioned here? Stanton hitting 500 HRs and returning to Miami to do so? Arraez becoming the next Tony Gwynn as a Marlin? Multiple Cy Young awards from Sandy or Eury?

It's not even close. Gary Sheffield still has one more chance, and he remains the best chance at a Miami Marlins player entering the Baseball Hall of Fame.