The Miami Marlins are now actively exploring deals involving first baseman and outfielder Kyle Stowers, according to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic.
The Athletic has revealed the club is discussing Stowers and catcher Liam Hicks more seriously than it is shortstop Otto López or second baseman Xavier Edwards.
This development has raised eyebrows across the league, given Stowers’ profile as a young, controllable power hitter who remains under team control for three more seasons after the Marlins failed to reach an extension agreement with him during the previous offseason.
Stowers has provided solid production in 2026 despite an early setback. A strained right hamstring sidelined him for the first three and a half weeks of the season, yet by early August he had already matched the team lead with 16 home runs.
The left-handed hitter has primarily manned first base this year, a position he had never played professionally before, while continuing to offer the kind of raw power that made him an All-Star and one of Miami’s most productive bats during his breakout 2025 campaign.
What makes the Marlins’ willingness to engage on Stowers particularly striking is the broader context of their roster and competitive outlook. Under president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, Miami has generally preferred to hold onto players with multiple years of remaining control rather than flip them midseason. Stowers fits squarely into that category.
The 28-year-old arrived in Miami as part of the 2024 trade that sent Trevor Rogers to Baltimore and quickly established himself as a cornerstone piece after a strong 2025 season that included 25 home runs and strong underlying metrics.
Trading a young All-Star with that track record and runway ahead would represent a departure from the patient, long-term approach that has defined recent Marlins decision-making.
The club’s current standing adds another layer of surprise. Miami has hovered near the fringes of the National League wild-card race for much of the summer, showing enough competitiveness to make selling core pieces feel premature to many observers.
While the Marlins have signaled openness to listening on certain young contributors, moving a bat like Stowers would require a return significant enough to justify parting with someone who could still play a meaningful role in future contention windows. The fact that discussions are more advanced on Stowers than on López or Edwards, both of whom also carry multiyear control, underscores how actively the front office is weighing its options at a position of relative depth.
Whether any deal materializes remains uncertain, as the Marlins have not indicated they are desperate sellers. Contending clubs looking for left-handed power and first-base help will continue to inquire, and Miami will evaluate whether the prospect packages on the table outweigh the value of retaining a player who has already shown he can produce at the major-league level.
For a franchise that has spent recent years carefully assembling a young core, the decision to engage so seriously on Stowers stands out as one of the more unexpected storylines of this trade deadline season.
