7 Major Leaguers that played for the Braves and the Marlins
The first place Atlanta Braves are set to play the second place Miami Marlins at Truist park in a big time weekend series. This series is trending up in meaningfulness, and baseball has a seen another trend in their community. I’m of course talking of the immaculate grid trend baseball fans are trying their hand at.
For those unfamiliar, each day a new grid is available for baseball fans to name players that played for whichever set of franchises the grid has selected that day, as well as what certain statistics players may have collected. It’s a ton of fun to test your baseball knowledge, and be played everyday at the immaculate grid website here.
In the spirit of this trend, and the upcoming matchup between the Braves and the fish, we decided to make a list of guys who played in both Atlanta and Miami. According to baseball reference there has actually been over 100 players that represented both franchises. For the sake of keeping this article from turning into an college essay I chose seven players.
Some you may have heard of, some you may have forgotten, and some will make you question how your years as a baseball fan flew by so quickly. Spoiler right here, I decided to leave off a few obvious active players in Marcell Ozuna, Adam Duvall (who was traded from MIA to ATL in 2021) and World Series MVP Jorge Soler, because I figured most fans knew these three fit the bill considering they aren’t long removed from wearing the other uniform. So, without further adieu let’s get into it.
Nick Anderson
Hey, I didn’t say I was leaving off all active players. 2023 is Anderson’s first season with the Braves and he currently 3.38 ERA and 3.04 FIP in 32 innings for Atlanta. However, it was just a short time ago Anderson made his major league debut with the Marlins. Anderson appeared in 45 games to the tune of a 3.91 ERA for Miami in 2019, before he was traded to Tampa Bay.
Alex Gonzalez
Gonzalez hasn’t played in the major leagues in nearly a decade now, and only made one all-star game appearance in his career. So, it would have been easy to forget this a man who actually played for both of these NL Eastern ball clubs. Braves fans got Gonzalez on the back half of his career, where he hit .241 with 21 homers across the 2010-2011 seasons. As a young rookie, Gonzalez came up with the fish, where he spent the bulk of his career, amassed over half of his career home runs, and even hit a walk-off bomb in the World Series.
Martin Prado
Perhaps one of the most loved players in both fan bases, and team clubhouse’s is that of sir Martin Prado. He began his big league career as the Atlanta Braves utility man and made his lone all-star game in 2010. With the Braves Prado hit .295 and 52 home runs across seven seasons. To round out his career, Prado made his way to Miami from 2015-2019 where he hit .278 and retired with an fWAR over 20 and exactly 100 career homers.
John Burkett
If you completely forgot about John Burkett, you are not alone. To be fair this guy debuted almost a decade before I was born, but make no mistake he had a solid career. Burkett spent most of his career with the Giants and the Rangers, but made pit stop after both for the respective clubs we are focusing on. From 1995-1996 Burkett pitched for the Marlins going 20-24 with a 4.31 ERA. He pitched for Atlanta from 2000-2001, and was selected as an all-star in 2001 where he had a 3.04 ERA and 3.39 FIP for the season.
Gary Sheffield
The man with the most career home runs (509 to be exact) that played for both of these teams is our fifth guy on this list. Sheffield actually played for eight different major league teams, although his longest stop occurred with the then Florida Marlins from 1993-1998. Braves fans’ surely wish his tenure with them was longer as he hit .319 with 64 home runs and 30 stolen bases in just two seasons.
Anibal Sanchez
The man who reinvented himself as a pitcher checks in at sixth on our list. The Braves gave Sanchez a chance to rebound after some rough last couple years in Detroit and man did he ever bounce back. He pitched to a 2.83 ERA in 24 starts for the Braves in 2018. However, Sanchez began his career with the Marlins, where threw nearly 800 innings with a 3.75 ERA. And in just his 13th career start, Sanchez threw a no-hitter.
Dan Uggla
Finally, we arrive to the man with the player many of you have been waiting on me to include. The powerful Dan Uggla debuted with the Marlins in 2006 and was selected with two of his three all-star nods with the Marlins. Uggla was traded from Miami to Atlanta in the 2010 offseason in exchange for Omar Infante and reliever Mike Dunn. Uggla never quite lived up to the expectations in Atlanta, but he did produce one of the more impressive hitting streaks in recent baseball memory in his time with the Braves.