Remembering When Jose Fernandez Told Giancarlo Stanton They'd Be on the Yankees Together Someday
By Adam Weinrib
Jose Fernandez's tragic death in a late-night boating accident towards the end of the 2016 season tore Miami apart, and brought about tremendously impactful ripple effects.
If Fernandez, the Marlins' centerpiece, had survived that fateful evening, it stands to reason that Giancarlo Stanton wouldn't have been sent to New York, with Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna following behind in an outfield exodus for the ages.
But perhaps the devastating inciting event here only sped up the inevitable -- per Fernandez himself, it was quite possible that Miami's dwindling finances would've forced the team to lose both he and Stanton to the Yankees anyway, which the slugger recalled before the 2018 season.
Giancarlo Stanton says that at the 2016 ASG, Jose Fernandez predicted Stanton would hit 60 HR and win NL MVP in 2017. Fernandez also said that if things didn’t work out in Miami, they’d be teammates on the Yankees someday.
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) January 29, 2018
Stanton accepted his MVP award for the 2017 season a few weeks after a trade to the Yankees had been consummated, revealing that the late Fernandez had been a bit of a soothsayer. While Big G got stuck on 59 homers that season, everything else came true, right down to the slugger's Big Apple arrival.
And in September 2016, a few days before the accident that decimated plenty of plotting, the Jose-to-NYC rumors were already beginning.
John Harper thinks the Yankees could deal for Jose Fernandez in the offseason. https://t.co/h1qri0CO2L
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) September 4, 2016
As rumor had it, Fernandez would've been willing to return to Miami during his free agency period after the 2018 season, but would not be taking a hometown discount to do so. If the fates had aligned, it seems Fernandez, not Gerrit Cole, might've someday been NYC's big-money ace.