It's late August and in a rare occurrence the Miami Marlins are in the thick of the postseason race, but that doesn't erase five years of losing and misery for slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
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Stanton is a huge reason why the Marlins enter Tuesday with a 65-65 record and are just three games behind the San Francisco Giants (68-62) for the second and final wild-card spot in the National League with the Pittsburgh Pirates (67-64) and Atlanta Braves (68-63) also in front of them.
Despite the team jockeying for position in the NL playoff picture after the first five months of the season, Stanton isn't quickly forgetting how much the Marlins have struggled in his young career.
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"Five months," Stanton told Yahoo Sports, "doesn't change five years."
He continued: "We've definitely done better than anyone thought we would do. At the same time, we're still not where we need to be to keep playing beyond the designed schedule. ...I want to be the only game on TV at the end of the day."
Stanton, who has critiqued upper management in the past and even tweeted about his frustration of the team's fire sale in 2012, has been linked to trade rumors for quite some time and could potentially be dealt this winter, though the Marlins have claimed to have no interest in moving him.
Miami is still in contention despite losing ace pitcher Jose Fernandez to Tommy John surgery this season, so with Fernandez expected to return in 2015, the Marlins will likely hold onto Stanton if they have any interest in winning next season.
While his happiness has been a question at times during his five seasons with the club, Stanton seems optimistic about which direction the team is headed in.
Stanton made his MLB debut with the Marlins in 2010, and the team has suffered through losing records every year since his arrival, and he wasn't quick to forget the team's past five lackluster seasons, which includes a 62-100 finish to the 2013 campaign.
Stanton, 24, belted his 150th-career home run on Monday against the Los Angeles Angels and leads the MLB in RBI (97), on-base percentage (.407) and OPS (.973) this season while pacing the NL with 33 homers, 273 total bases, 86 walks and a .566 slugging percentage.
Individual statistics are great for Stanton, but what the slugger really wants is to see the Marlins make the postseason for the first time since 2003.
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