Plenty of position players have had great seasons for the Miami Marlins over the years.
Yet only two have had a better season than one Cornelius Clifford Floyd did for the Marlins back in 2001.
That probably sounds crazy at first glance, given the slugging talent that has come through South Florida. However, if you go by the WAR measure that has been the standard during Marlin Maniac’s Best To Wear The Miami Marlins Jersey Number Series, only Hanley Ramirez and Giancarlo Stanton have had a better season than Cliff Floyd did during the peak of a three year stretch that saw him look like one of the best hitters in baseball. Defense counts in WAR, after all, which gives the athletic Floyd the edge over some of those prolific Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Delgado, Gary Sheffield, and Stanton seasons. And for those three seasons, Floyd often looked every bit as much of a superstar as those Marlins legends.
In terms of the battle for Best Miami Marlins No. 30 honors though, Floyd stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field.
A few honorable mentions stand out here, with an MLB Hall of Famer once again gracing us with his presence. Tim Raines wore No. 30 for the back half of 2002, taking the number back after Floyd was traded back to Montreal in exchange for multiple members of the 2003 World Champions, headlined by Carl Pavano and Mike Mordecai. A personal favorite of mine would be catcher Miguel Olivo, who had a surprisingly great 2006 for Miami. Then there’s Garrett Cooper, a personal favorite of a significant contingent of the Marlins Twitterverse, who wore the number in his first season with the club in 2018.
Of course, there’s one other player worth mentioning in this conversation, and he was probably the first player many readers thought of considering he appears in one of the most indelible images in Miami Marlins franchise history. That’d be Craig Counsell, sporting No. 30 on his back as he leapt about 100 feet into the air after crossing home plate as the winning run in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Floyd was there that night too, of course, but wore No. 15 during the first few years of his Marlins career. Somewhat amazingly, when you stack up MLB careers, Floyd only finished a few WAR points ahead of Counsell. It just goes to show the even loftier heights Floyd could have reached had he not struggled with injuries to the extent that he did.
Even so, few hitters have had as productive a tenure in a Miami Marlins uniform as Cliff Floyd, and that’s uniform period, not just No. 30.