New York Yankees skipper Aaron Boone is confident in outfielder Giancarlo Stanton heading into their playoff series against Minnesota.
It’s safe to say New York Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton experienced what can be defined as a “lost season” in 2019. The veteran only played in 18 games this year, battling injuries to his biceps, shoulder, calf, and knee.
The slugger is now active though and actually played in nine of the team’s final 10 regular-season games. Stanton’s with the ballclub heading into their upcoming American League Division Series matchup with the Minnesota Twins. And, despite the injury-plagued past, Bombers manager Aaron Boone is confident in his veteran outfielder.
Aaron Boone explains why he's confident in Giancarlo Stanton coming into the postseason despite having just come back from injury pic.twitter.com/5kqGvOwDht
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 2, 2019
“To get out there the final 10 days of the season or so I think was really valuable,” Boone said this week. “[Stanton’s] a worker. The three weeks even leading up to him even getting back in games with us, I do feel like he was seeing a lot of live at-bats, which I think is really valuable for him.
“I felt like overall, these final 10 days, where he was able to get in games with us, I thought his at-bat quality was pretty good. Physically, I thought he was moving around well. Whether it was in the outfield, his ability to move laterally, cut some balls off in the gap, come in and make throws, the way he looked running the bases, running out extra-base hits, things like that I thought were good. So, I feel like he’s in a pretty good place heading in.
“Is it perfect? No. But I feel good about what he was able to do and I think it went about as well as we could’ve hoped considering where we were, say, a month ago.”
Stanton and the Yankees will begin their upcoming series on Friday night at 7:07 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium. Left-hander James Paxton will start Game 1 against Minnesota.
