Yankees eagerly waiting for Giancarlo Stanton to elbow his way into lineup
Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton looks on after a game against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, April 15. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Giancarlo Stanton is close to returning to the Yankees after an injury.
Also, stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Yankees are really excited about Giancarlo Stanton being close to returning after an injury.
“I mean, it’s Giancarlo Stanton,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“I can’t wait,” Aaron Judge said.
The Yankees went into Saturday night’s game against the Red Sox with a 39-23 record and a small list of things to worry about.
What to do with the lineup when Stanton is ready is not one of them. What it means for Ben Rice, who has done a nice job as Stanton’s fill-in at designated hitter, is not one of them.
When Stanton is ready — perhaps in a week, perhaps more, the timeline is sketchy — he will play as much as he is able. Rice will play less. It’s as simple as that.
“Putting [Stanton] in there,” Boone said, “I’m looking forward to that.”
Stanton’s return from severe tendinitis in both elbows is close enough that the Yankees can smell it. It’s close enough that Boone can use his doodle pad to imagine what a lineup with Stanton would look like.
“We're still enough time away from that to where you’ve got to see what happens, and are we completely whole at that point, and all those things,” Boone said. “So [I] think about it a little bit.”
Stanton, who has been working out in Tampa, is expected to rejoin the Yankees on Sunday or Monday, Boone said, with a minor-league rehab assignment “hopefully starting . . . next week up here in the North somewhere.”
That potentially could have Stanton’s 2025 debut taking place at Fenway Park next weekend. But that’s my guess of a fast timeline, not anything from the Yankees, so don’t hold me or them to it.
Regardless of when Stanton first steps into a big-league batter’s box, it will be a big deal for Judge, who couldn’t stop smiling when talking about “Big G” and what he brings to a lineup.
“I've been missing it ever since the end of last year,” Judge told Newsday. “I know he's itching to get back. When he's here, he's been in every single one of our hitters’ meetings and sharing knowledge. It's just that knowledge that you get from a future Hall of Famer. Try to soak all that up as much as you can.”
That may all be true and very helpful behind the scenes. But the Yankees already have three hitting coaches, and the club is not paying Stanton $32 million this season for tips.
They are paying him to mash, to put fear in opposing pitchers and to go on one of his legendary hot streaks, especially during a 2025 postseason that seems almost certain for the Yankees in the diluted American League.
Stanton hit seven home runs in the postseason last year. Something tells me if the Yankees could guarantee that kind of production, they’d be happy if he started his season on Sept. 1.
Starting it in June is a bonus, assuming Stanton can stay healthy all the way to October. There’s no guarantee, of course, but it’s tantalizing to think what adding a guy with 429 career home runs and Stanton’s presence can do for the Yankees, who went into Saturday tops in the AL in runs, home runs and slugging percentage.
“We saw what he did in the postseason, what he does every postseason, and even in the regular season,” Judge said. “When you got a guy like that — he's got 400 homers, whatever he has, can hit the ball all over the park, a tough at-bat with guys in scoring position — you add that somewhere in the middle of the lineup, now we get a couple guys on for Giancarlo, that’s not usually going to end too well for the pitcher.”
Stanton’s return is going to turn Rice into a part-time DH, part-time first baseman, maybe even an occasional catcher. But that’s OK; Rice has a bright future. The 26-year-old went into Saturday with 12 home runs, an .841 OPS and an OPS-plus of 136.
If you’re not familiar with OPS-plus, league average is 100. Judge’s OPS-plus going into Saturday’s was 251. But he’s in another league.
Stanton had an OPS-plus of 169 in his best season, his NL MVP campaign in 2017 with Miami, when he hit 59 home runs.
At age 35, Stanton reaches those heights now only in spurts. But he is one of the few hitters in baseball who can understand what it’s like to hit a ball as hard and far as Judge.
Because Stanton doesn’t play the field, all he has to do is hit. Hit and stay healthy — or at least healthy at the right times.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
