New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton hits a double in the second inning of a spring ... [+]
There are many rebound candidates for the Yankees and other than Gerrit Cole and Gleyber Torres you can make the case for many notable figures of health and productivity.
Perhaps nobody holds the distinction more than Giancarlo Stanton, who even in worst season can still do things like hit the ball into the third deck in the left field seats at Yankee Stadium. Stanton achieved that feat July 8 by hitting a 447-foot drive off the facing but the problem was those were too infrequent.
As much as Anthony Rizzo struggled for two months before the Yankees realized he was dealing with the effects of a concussion, Stanton’s struggles were equally as critical in dooming the Yankees to a 82-win season, which is why perhaps there is significant optimism about what he is doing in spring training.
Normally a game in the middle of the penultimate week of exhibition play does not get noticed but it is hard to look away when someone, especially someone with Stanton’s power hits three homers.
It is what unfolded Wednesday and it continued the feel good vibes with Stanton, who entered camp looking thinner and coming off a winter where GM Brian Cashman said the quiet part aloud to a large gathering of media. Back in mid-November after Stanton batted a pitiful .191 in 101 games with 24 homers and 60 RBI, Cashman admitted he expects Stanton to often get injured.
Cashman’s remarks were not invalid. They were made about someone who missed nearly two months with an early hamstring injury last season, someone who missed a month with an Achilles’ tendon in 2022 and someone who has been on the injured list seven times for a combined 301 games, including 162 in 2019.
Stanton is just as frustrated as Cashman and the fans are. When the season ended, he hinted at some changes and opted to shed about 15 pounds to make himself muscular but a leaner version of himself.
“I just needed to be more mobile,” Stanton told reporters when he reported for spring training last month. “A lot of setbacks [last season] kept me not moving the way I’d like to be.”
So far, Stanton’s leaner frame is helping him hit .314 in exhibition games and go on a 10-for-20 surge that included his three long homers against the Pittsburgh Pirates a combined 1,334 feet.
“I feel he’s looked pretty good all spring,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “I feel like he’s been in control of his at-bats. Tonight obviously he was really precise, and when he’s like that he’s pretty scary.”
It is only exhibition games but the Yankees are of the belief Stanton is a hitter possessed with the rage and frustration of the lost season he and the rest and the Yankees experienced in barely avoiding their first losing campaign since 1992.
“I think he went into this offseason pissed off,” Boone told reporters. “He wanted to make alterations. He’s always a driven, focused guy, but let’s say there’s an added edge to him.”
Of course, none of the feel good vibes emerging about Stanton will matter if there is any lengthy injured list stay that derails a season where the Yankees are adding Juan Soto for at least a year.
It is something Stanton is well aware of and something all parties are trying to avoid since things seemingly cannot get any worse than last season.
“The way I feel moving around and everything is I planned for in the offseason,” Stanton told reporters. “It’s a good start. Now we’ve got months to keep it together.”
Next week the Yankees will start finding out if Stanton’s feel-good spring training leads to six months of health and successful results at the plate.
