By Jeffrey Hayes via Wikimedia Commons
The Miami Marlins have been around since 1993. So, there have been plenty of opportunities for players to rack up 100 RBI seasons. It’s been done just 18 times in franchise history. Below, you’ll find all the occurrences of a Marlins 100 RBI season since the organization’s inception.
We’ll first discuss the top five single-season RBI performances before listing out the remainder of the top 18.
Anything related to power in Marlins history includes Giancarlo Stanton right now. And it’ll probably stay that way for quite some time. He’s Miami’s single-season home run leader, all-time home run leader, and also the single-season RBI leader. Unsurprisingly, this specific performance came during his NL MVP Award campaign which included a league-leading 59 home runs. What is surprising, though, is Stanton’s 2017 output was just the second and final time he surpassed the 100-RBI plateau for the Marlins.
The right-handed slugger posted three months of 20-plus RBI during this specific season. He wouldn’t have gotten to the heights he did without a crazy August, though. In just 127 plate appearances, Stanton slugged 18 home runs (!) with 37 RBI (!!) while posting a 1.332 OPS. He also didn’t mind hitting in the pitcher-friendly loanDepot park, either. His 31 homers, 68 RBI, and 1.104 OPS at home were all better than what he did on the road (28, 64, and .923, respectively).
As Stanton was busy making headlines with one of the most powerful single-season performances ever, fellow outfielder Marcell Ozuna also had a career year. He added 37 home runs with those 124 RBI, which was also accompanied by a .312/.376/.548 line. He finished 15th in NL MVP Award voting, was selected to the All-Star Game, and won both a Gold Glove Award and a Silver Slugger Award. Not a bad year on an individual level.
Similar to his teammate, Ozuna also liked hitting at home. He slugged 22 homers with 61 RBI and a 1.023 OPS in Miami, compared to 15 home runs, 63 RBI, and a .837 OPS on the road. Racking up this many RBI means Ozuna probably took advantage of the opportunities given to him. That would be correct, and it’s evidenced by how his OPS kept rising in certain situations. With the bases empty, he posted a .870 OPS. That went up to .980 with runners on base and then again to 1.063 with runners in scoring position.
Preston Wilson spent 10 years in the big leagues and posted two seasons of at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. The first occurrence came in 2000 with the Marlins, slugging 31 homers with 121 RBI. It was a little extra special because he added a single-season career-high 36 stolen bases to his ledger, giving him a 30-30 performance. He’d never swipe more than 20 bags in one year again.
Wilson spent all but seven of his 674 plate appearances in 2000 as the Marlins’ clean-up hitter, so he did exactly what was expected of him. He collected 29 RBI in the first inning of games, and it was the early portion of contests where he did the most damage. The outfielder had 47 RBI through the first three innings, 38 in innings four through six, and 34 between innings seven and nine.
Gary Sheffield was a power-hitting machine during his prime. He surpassed the 30-100 plateau eight times in his big-league career. Two of those occasions stick out because he went 40-100. As you can imagine, that’s exactly what he did in 1996 with Florida. It was the first time Sheffield accomplished the feat, slugging 42 homers and collecting 120 RBI. And until Wilson came along a few years later, those 120 rib-eye steaks were a single-season franchise record.
While Sheff hit slightly more homers on the road (23) than at home (19), his RBI production was split right down the middle at 60 in each situation. He was good in all scenarios during the 1996 season, but it’s worth pointing out how much he produced against teams with a winning record. In 99 games and 408 plate appearances, Sheffield slashed .313/.453/.649 with 28 home runs, 20 doubles, 73 RBI, and 71 runs scored.
Talk about making your last hurrah a good one, right? Miguel Cabrera spent the first five seasons of his MLB career with the Florida Marlins. His last campaign before getting traded to the Detroit Tigers was in 2007. In addition to those 119 RBI, Miggy also slugged 34 home runs. That was the third time he went 30-100 since 2004 and the fourth straight year he surpassed the 100 RBI plateau.
Cabrera didn’t register his first 20 RBI month until June. He proceeded to do it three times over the regular season’s final four months, with September/October being his best of all. The right-handed slugger accumulated 26 RBI over his final 120 plate appearances, which was accompanied by a .343/.433/.500 triple slash. It’s worth noting that Miggy loved attacking the first pitch of at-bats and had quite a bit of success doing it. He posted a 1.161 OPS with seven homers, eight doubles, and 20 RBI in that situation.
As mentioned above, there have been 18 different seasons of 100-plus RBI in Marlins history. Here are the rest:
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