Although the 2017 Winter Meetings are still a week away, it sounds as though the Miami Marlins are very close to trading franchise player Giancarlo Stanton. The Marlins have reportedly agreed to trade packages with both the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Now the ball is in Stanton's court. He has a full no-trade clause and can choose his destination.

Stanton is a true balance-of-power player. He can change an entire division race by himself. And of course every team in the league would improve by adding him to the lineup. Not every team can afford Stanton's contract, of course, but they all want him. The Giants and Cardinals have pursued him most aggressively thus far, but which team needs him more, St. Louis or San Francisco? There are three factors we can consider to answer that question.

Need for power

Stanton is baseball's preeminent power hitter -- he became only the fifth player in history to swat 59 home runs in a single season this year -- and clearly the Giants have a much greater need for a power hitter than the Cardinals. Both teams can use Stanton's power, don't get me wrong, but San Francisco is desperate for a player who can hit the ball out of the park. Some numbers:

2017 Giants home runs: 128 (30th in MLB)
2017 Giants slugging percentage: .380 (30th)

2017 Cardinals home runs: 196 (18th)
2017 Cardinals slugging percentage: .426 (17th)

It was the Year of the Home Run everywhere but AT&T Park this season, apparently. Stanton hit more home runs than Brandon Belt (18), Brandon Crawford (14), Hunter Pence (13), and Buster Posey (12) combined in 2017, and those four were San Francisco's top four home run hitters. Oy vey.

The Cardinals had five players hit 20-plus home runs this season: Paul DeJong (25), Matt Carpenter (23), Tommy Pham (23), Randal Grichuk (23), and Jedd Gyorko (20). The Giants have had one player hit 20-plus home runs since 2015: Crawford hit 21 in 2015. I repeat: Oy vey.

You can win the World Series without being a top power hitting team. The Royals did it in 2015 and Giants themselves did it a few times themselves recently. It is very hard to do though, especially these days when pretty much any player can change the game with one swing. The Giants are devoid of power and need Stanton more than the Cardinals for that reason.

Outfield situation

Stanton is so good that you make room for him in your outfield. You don't let someone stand in his way. Now, that said, it would be much easier for some teams to slot him into the outfield than others. How would the Yankees clear room for Stanton with Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clint Frazier on the roster? It would take some creativity.

The Cardinals, as things stand, are quite deep in the outfield. In fact, their official site lists nine outfielders on the 40-man roster. The nine: Grichuk, Pham, Harrison Bader, Dexter Fowler, Jose Martinez, Oscar Mercado, Tyler O'Neill, Stephen Piscotty, and Magneuris Sierra. Bader, Mercado, O'Neill, and Sierra can all go to the minors. Martinez can play first base. That still leaves Grichuk, Pham, Fowler, and Piscotty. I suppose one could be included in the Stanton trade, but yeah, that's a full outfield.

The Giants have six outfielders on their 40-man roster: Pence, Gorkys Hernandez, Jarrett Parker, Austin Slater, Denard Span, and Mac Williamson. I'm not sure any one of those six qualifies as a bona fide everyday MLB outfielder right now. Pence and Span are slipping with age and the other guys aren't top prospects by any means. They're 40-man roster depth fodder, the type of players who get shuttled in and out.

MLB: Miami Marlins at Atlanta Braves
Both the Cardinals and Giants want Giancarlo Stanton, but who needs him more? USATSI

Given their outfield situations, the Giants have a much greater need for Cardinals. Ideally, the Giants would add three new outfielders this winter, though that's not really feasible. They need at least one though. Their left fielders hit .246/.299/.367 with 11 home runs in 2017. Goodness. Stanton would be a massive, massive upgrade to their outfield picture.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, are not nearly as desperate for outfield help. Fowler and Pham are above-average players if not stars, and both Grichuk and Piscotty are at least viable platoon players. Either one would be the best outfielder on the Giants. Bader and O'Neill are both MLB ready (or very close to MLB ready) top prospects as well.

Similar to their desperate need for power, it is again clear the Giants need Stanton much more than the Giants given their current outfield situation.

Window of contention

Whichever team trades for Stanton will do so with the intention of winning next season. They're not going to trade for him, sit through a long rebuild, and hope he's still in his prime when they're ready to win again. Nope. Add Stanton and you want to win right now. He just turned 28, he's in the prime of his career, and he can opt-out of his contract in three years. The goal is to get Stanton and to do as much winning as possible from 2018-20, before he opts out.

The Giants were terrible in 2017. They went 64-98 and would've finished with the worst record in baseball had Pablo Sandoval not hit a walk-off home run on the final day of the season. The Cardinals went 83-79 this season and finished only four games back of the second wild-card spot. They were much closer to contention than the Giants. Much, much closer.

Stanton would not be joining the 2017 Giants or 2017 Cardinals, however. He'd be joining the 2018 Giants or 2018 Cardinals. What are those teams expected to do next season? Here are the current 2018 projections, with the big caveat that there is still a lot of offseason to go.

2018 Giants per FanGraphs: 78-84 (15 GB in NL West, 7 GB of wild-card spot)
2018 Giants per ZiPS: 75-87 (21 GB in NL West, 5 GB of wild-card spot)

2018 Cardinals per FanGraphs: 86-76 (6 GB in NL Central, +1 GU on top wild-card spot)
2018 Cardinals per ZiPS: 80-82 (7 GB in NL Central, 2 GB of wild-card spot)

Right now, the completely objective projection systems see the Cardinals as a borderline postseason team and the Giants as a long-shot contender. I don't think that is unrealistic given their 2017 seasons, their current rosters, and the fact the Cardinals are considered to have a better farm system, thanks largely to all the young arms on the cusp of The Show.

Stanton is a legitimate +6 WAR player right now. That is a reasonable expectation in 2018 with good health. He'd add six wins to your ledger over a replacement level player, and that's an awful lot. Stick him on the Giants in place of the left field mess, and he'd get them right on the wild-card bubble. Not a clearly cut favorite but in the mix.

With the Cardinals, Stanton would not add six wins because he wouldn't be replacing a replacement level player. He'd likely replace Grichuk or Piscotty. The Cardinals received +1.6 WAR from their worst outfield position last year, so Stanton is more like a +4.4 win upgrade next year. The Giants have true replacement level production in one of their outfield spots. The Cardinals don't.

For St. Louis, those extra 4.4 wins added by acquiring Stanton would be huge. It would push them from sitting on the wild-card bubble to firmly in postseason territory, and give them a shot to win the NL Central. Every win the Cardinals add is massive. It improves their chances of going to October greatly. The Giants need to add lots of wins -- wins beyond Stanton -- to have their best chance at the playoffs.

Because winning is always the goal and the Cardinals are closer to the postseason than the Giants as the teams are currently constituted, St. Louis needs Stanton more. He helps separate them from all the other bubble teams and gives them a real chance at the division title. The Cardinals appear better suited to make a postseason run next year than the Giants.

There's no question the Giants need the power and outfield help more than the Cardinals. At the same time, they were a 64-win team in 2017, and adding Stanton is hardly guaranteed to push San Francisco into the postseason picture. The Cardinals are much closer to contention right now, at least on paper, and Stanton could be the piece that puts them over the top. Since winning is always the top priority, I authoritatively declare the Cardinals need Stanton more than the Giants. It has been decided.