MINNEAPOLIS — For all that was made over Giancarlo Stanton remaking his body during the offseason, it would not have mattered much in the end if it did not lead to better production and health.
The two have gone hand-in-hand for Stanton since he became a Yankee, and while the season is just over one-quarter done, the early returns have been encouraging.
After getting lighter in the offseason in hopes of being “a baseball player again,” Stanton drilled his ninth home run of the season in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over the Twins.
He has still been lighting up Statcast regularly with eye-popping exit velocities, but he was doing that on occasion even when he was hindered by lower-body injuries in recent years.
This version of Stanton has noticeably moved around better and, most importantly, stayed healthy to date.
“Just being able to stay in my legs, stay moving around better and just contributing,” Stanton said. “[The season] has been solid so far. It could always be better. But if I can contribute in some way each night, that’s what’s important.”
By this time in four of the last five seasons, Stanton was already on the injured list with a pulled muscle — a strained biceps after three games in 2019, a strained hamstring after 14 games in 2020, a strained quad after 33 games in 2021 and a strained hamstring after 13 games in 2023. In 2022, he made it through 40 games before landing on the injured list with right ankle inflammation.
Wednesday marked Stanton’s 38th game of the season, and so far, his body has held up following an offseason in which GM Brian Cashman bluntly said the slugger was “going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game” (part of a longer answer about how Stanton could still produce when healthy).
A few of those early-season IL stints in past years derailed what had been strong starts for Stanton. In 2020, he was batting .293 with a 1.038 OPS before getting hurt. In 2021, he was batting .282 with a .882 OPS and nine home runs before going on the IL. And in 2022, he was batting .285 with a .863 OPS and 11 home runs when he landed on the IL.
This season, even without going on one of his patented hot streaks yet, Stanton went into Wednesday batting .236 with nine home runs and a 113 OPS-plus. He was even better with runners in scoring position, batting .323 with a 1.045 OPS. He then went 2-for-4 with a an RBI in the 4-0 win over the Twins.
“He’s been good. He’s been consistent,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s given us that presence in the middle of the order, whether it’s in that four or five hole, depending on who we’re facing. He’s had that presence.
“We go back to early when he had that stretch of 20 at-bats where he struggled a little bit, but even then, despite that slow start, I felt like he’s consistently having at-bats where he’s in the fight every night. When he does that, he’s going to run into balls just because he’s so strong.”
Boone agreed that Stanton being in a better place physically is “definitely part of it,” along with his track record (before having the worst season of his career last year). The 34-year-old may never get back to the hitter he was as an MVP in 2017, but the Yankees would likely sign up for this healthy version.
“I’ve been really pleased with the presence he’s been in the middle,” Boone said.
Boone has been able to give Stanton occasional days off so he can get Aaron Judge one or two DH days a week, which should help keep Stanton fresh.
And when he is in the lineup, Stanton still has the tools to instill some fear in his opponents — including the fastest average bat speed in the majors (80.6 mph), according to data released by Statcast this week.
“The guy’s a heck of a player,” Carlos Rodon said. “When he hits the ball and he makes contact, he does damage as you saw [Tuesday]. A guy like that in our lineup is obviously great to have. But as a pitcher facing a guy like that, it’s tough. You don’t know if the ball’s going to come back at you at 120 [mph] or if it’s going to go over the fence at 120.”
