TAMPA, Fla. – All it takes is one look to notice that Giancarlo Stanton is much thinner this spring than when the New York Yankees' 2023 season unceremoniously ended.
Stanton prefers not to talk about the change. It's not that I was out of shape before. He has been a mass of muscle since he debuted in the Major Leagues 14 years ago. He has always looked more like a tight end than a baseball player. He still does it.
“He's screwed, bro,” Aaron Judge said. “It's crazy.”
Stanton noted that he alters his routine each offseason, adjusting and reacting to failures or successes from the previous year. But 2023 was different: he hit rock bottom.
Last season he was on the verge of embarrassment, prompting his latest reassessment. Stanton, now 34, concluded that carrying less weight would help him get through next season healthy. After last year, when even running the bases seemed like a struggle for him at times, Stanton focused on improving his mobility, on adding explosiveness, on becoming more of a spark on the diamond.
Stanton has also made a small change in the batter's box. He has moved his hands a little closer to his body to stay more on inside throws.
“This is a game of millimeters,” Stanton said, “so the minimum is huge in some respects.”
The question is: will everything work?
“You have to be willing to make changes,” Stanton said, “and trust the direction you're going when you do it.”
It's about finding a detour. Stanton, who arrived in the Bronx after his best and healthiest season, an NL MVP campaign with the Miami Marlins in 2017, has played more than 110 games in just two of his six years in New York. He has landed on the disabled list in each of the last five seasons, and eight times in total. He has missed time due to biceps, knee, quadriceps, hamstring and calf injuries. In 2022, Achilles tendinitis derailed his All-Star season after hitting 24 home runs with an .835 OPS in 76 first-half games.
The 2023 season, however, was the worst of his career.
Stanton missed nearly two months with a hamstring strain. When he played, he was ugly. He posted career lows in batting average (.191), on-base percentage (.275) and slugging percentage (.420). Not only did he seem uncomfortable running the bases, but he could barely play the outfield in September.
In November, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman offered a blunt assessment in a testy meeting with reporters, saying that Stanton “will most likely end up getting hurt again because it seems to be part of his game.”
That prompted a public response from Stanton's agent, Joel Wolfe. “I think it's a good reminder for all free agents considering signing in New York, both domestic and foreign,” Wolfe said in a statement to The Athletic while also making a thinly veiled reference to another of his clients, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, “To play on that team you have to be made of Teflon, both mentally and physically, because you can never let your guard down, not even in the off-season.”
Both Cashman and Stanton have said the episode is behind them. And Cashman's harsh assessment didn't change this fact: Stanton isn't going anywhere.
Stanton has four years and $128 million guaranteed left on his contract. The Yankees are on the hook for $98 million; the Marlins will pay the rest. Getting that money off the payroll by trading Stanton is nearly impossible at this point. Instead, the Yankees made moves during the offseason to deepen his lineup and lessen the impact should Stanton have another disastrous season.
Juan Soto was acquired to be the one-two punch partner with Judge that Stanton hasn't been able to be lately. Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham, along with Soto, joined the outfield rotation. The Yankees hope Stanton can rotate through the outfield rotation twice a week, giving Soto and Judge a chance to take their usual spot as designated hitter. But the Yankees don't have to depend on that happening to win games. A productive season at Stanton is gravy.
“First and foremost, hopefully health,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said when asked what he thinks Stanton's slimmer build might produce. “But definitely moving around, being more athletic, having more presence on the bases. A more realistic option on the field. All those things.”
Stanton got off to a slow start in the Grapefruit League, going 1 for 15 with one walk in six games. Since then, he has recorded three multi-hit games and hit his first home run of spring training on Saturday.
“I think he's very good for what he's trying to do up there,” hitting coach James Rowson said earlier this month. “He has a plan about what he wants to do. It's not necessarily about the results now. It's more about the process. And his process is really good. He's been really good in the cage.
“His preparation to come here every day has been incredible. Like something I haven't seen before.”
Ultimately, it comes down to where Stanton is this summer and, the Yankees hope, when his team returns in October after missing the playoffs in 2023. Is he on the disabled list? On the bench? In the lineup every day enjoying a bounce-back season?
Stanton looks different. It won't matter if the results are the same.
“I want to help us win a championship,” Stanton said. “Obviously, if I produce the way I can, we'll be in a good position to do that, and that's my job.”
