MIAMI -- Being an everyday player in the Major Leagues is the dream of any aspiring ballplayer. But, as even he admits, that experience would be at a much higher level if it were to happen to Gaby Sanchez with the Marlins.

The 25-year-old has lived his entire life in South Florida, from high school at Brito Miami Private, to college at the University of Miami and to the Majors with the Marlins. He frequently went to Dolphin Stadium to watch Marlins games with his father. He followed the squad since it became a franchise in 1993. And he always wondered what it would be like to don a Marlins uniform every day.

Sanchez got a taste of that as a September callup. But that was just an appetizer to what can happen during the upcoming Spring Training, when he'll get a chance to compete for Florida's starting first-base job.

"I was there watching the Marlins when they first started going, and I said to myself, 'Man, that would be cool if I can play for them,'" Sanchez said during the Marlins' Farmshare Turkey Distribution on Tuesday. "It's one of those things where you want to play for any team, but you always have that favorite team, and mine was the Marlins."

Thanks to Sanchez's breakout season with Double-A Carolina in 2008, the Marlins felt 32 home runs and 93 RBIs were expendable when they traded Mike Jacobs to the Royals for Leo Nunez on Oct. 30.

"Really, we were trading from an area of depth to an area that we wanted to create more depth in," Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest said after the trade.

Now, Sanchez will go into Spring Training likely competing against third baseman Dallas McPherson -- who hit a Minor League-leading 42 home runs with 98 RBIs for Triple-A Albuquerque in 2008 -- for a starting corner infield spot opposite Jorge Cantu -- who can play third or first base.

So with Sanchez a likely candidate to make a 25-man roster for the first time since being selected by the Marlins in the fourth round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, this offseason takes on new meaning.

"This is definitely different than the times before, because I know that there is an opportunity there for me to make the team out of Spring Training," Sanchez said. "But you just can't put pressure on yourself saying, 'This could be my year,' because once you start doing that, then you put added pressure, and you're not going to perform to your abilities."

Sanchez performed to his abilities in 2008, when he hit .314 with 17 home runs and 92 RBIs for the Mudcats en route to being named the Southern League's Most Valuable Player. Because of that, Sanchez had his contract selected on Sept. 14, and he was finally able to play in the stadium he only previously knew as a spectator.

"It's that dream that you have," said Sanchez, who went 3-for-8 with two doubles in five games for the Marlins. "You always believed that it could happen, but when it actually does, it hits you a little bit differently than probably someone else who didn't grow up in the same state playing.

"For me, I always wanted to do it, and I always thought that it could happen. But when it did, I was like, 'Wow, it came true.' It's a different kind of experience for me, I guess, than somebody else."

Since he came up, Sanchez said it's been 10-year veteran Wes Helms who has helped him out the most. And with Helms signing a two-year extension on Oct. 3 -- likely to maintain his role as a pinch-hitter and corner-infield defensive replacement -- Sanchez can continue to get that much-needed veteran leadership.

"The first day I got there, he said, 'Let's go in the weight room,' and I had to work out every single day since," Sanchez said. "If I didn't work out with him, he was yelling at me.

"He saw things when I was catching ground balls, and he was like, 'Hey, you have to do this, and you have to do this.' I worked real hard with him while I was there just doing techniques at first base."

But it will all be up to Sanchez in terms of whether or not he gets to live out his dream of being an everyday player in the Major Leagues.

The fact he can do it with the only team he ever rooted for is just the icing on the cake.

"You always think, 'Man, it would be cool if Spring Training comes and I'm in the lineup every single day,' and that's one of the things that you always think about, because that's what you end up wanting to happen," Sanchez said. "In the end, that's what it's always about -- to be able to play every day in a Major League stadium.

"But I have to let myself know I can't get too ahead. Until that day comes, you just have to keep pushing."