FanPost Friday: Bring back the best

FanPost Prompt: If you could draw one player from the Marlins’ World Series teams, restore him to his prime, and put him into the lineup right now who would you pick?

The 1997 and 2003 Florida Marlins won two of the most unlikely World Series ever. With the ‘97 team being only 3 years beyond its point of creation, they defeated the Cleveland Indians 4 games to 3, making them the first Wild Card team to win the World Series.

Juan Encarnación ended Game 7 with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the bottom of the 11th. Craig Counsell’s double fist-pump as he crossed home is still one of my favorite shots in all of sports.

Meanwhile, the 2003 iteration became just the 2nd team in baseball history to win a World Series championship while being 10 or more games below .500 at some point in the season. They fired manager Jeff Torborg a mere 38 games into their campaign, and brought on 72-year-old, cigar-toting Jack McKeon. At some point that season they would call up Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis and trade for/sign Jeff Conine, Ugueth Urbina , and Aaron Small. They would go on to beat the New York freakin’ Yankees in 6 games.

*puffs victoriously*

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

So out of every player on the two championship rosters (see full lists below), who do you pull up and drop into the 2018 team? Based on past performance, you could significantly improve the starting pitching, bolster one of the worst offenses in today’s game, OR you could really spice things up and trade one of these guys in true Marlins fashion. If that’s the case, what team would you trade the player to and what would you expect in return?

Whip us up a Fanpost and let us know what your thoughts are on the prompt!