Marlins likely to announce Stanton out for season

The Sports Xchange

September 17, 2014 at 4:07 am.

Giancarlo Stanton's health is the most important thing to the Marlins moving forward. (Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

NEW YORK — The Miami Marlins have a Giancarlo Stanton jersey hanging in their dugout during every game. Unfortunately for the Marlins, that appears to be as close as they will get to re-uniting with Stanton this season.

Stanton visited with doctors all day Tuesday, five days after he suffered facial fractures and dental damage when he was hit in the face by a pitch from Milwaukee Brewers righty Mike Fiers.

Despite the frightening incident — Stanton bled so profusely on the Miller Park field that it took 10 minutes to clean it up — Stanton said he hoped to play again this season. But manager Mike Redmond, speaking Tuesday night after the Marlins’ 9-1 loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field, struck a pessimistic tone when he said the Marlins would issue an official statement on Stanton’s prognosis on Wednesday.

“It’s probably not looking good for him,” Redmond said.

Several hours earlier, Redmond said he supported Stanton’s desire to come back this month and hoped he could step into a batter’s box so that he could author a better ending to his otherwise magnificent 2014 season.

“I would want nothing more than to have him step into that box four or five more times, or eight more times — however many times it is before the season is over,” Redmond said. “For him to have that comfort level of knowing that he got into that box and not have his last memory for the 2014 season (be) getting hit in the mouth.”

At the time he got hurt, Stanton was the front-runner in the National League MVP race. He is hitting .288 and still leads the league in homers (37) while ranking second in RBIs (105).

But it appears he will not get a chance to add to those totals and will have to be content the rest of the way with being with the Marlins in spirit.

“I know it means a lot to him,” Redmond said of the jersey tribute. “I think it just shows how big a part he is and that we’re thinking about him and thinking about what he’s going through.

“We had to make sure that he knew we were thinking about him every day. And we know he’s thinking about us and wishing he was here.”

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