After feeling tightness in his left hamstring during Saturday’s doubleheader, New York Yankees DH Giancarlo Stanton is heading to the IL.
After an injury-plagued 2019 season, Giancarlo Stanton is heading to the injured list for the first time in 2020. The slugger experienced tightness in his left hamstring when the New York Yankees played the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.
“I’m hurting for him,” manager Aaron Boone said via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “I know what he’s done to be here. His play speaks for itself. Hopefully, it’s something that doesn’t end up keeping him down too long.”
“I think he felt it when he got [to second base],” Boone later added. “He realized something, and then when he came in, he said, ‘Have somebody ready.’ He wanted to go kind of stretch and see what he was feeling.”
Stanton was off to a strong start in 2020. The former National League MVP was putting up an OPS 1.038 with three home runs and seven RBIs. In fact, he ripped a solo home run in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday.
This is a tough blow for the Yankees, but they should be able to weather the storm without Stanton. Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu are putting together ridiculous seasons and powering the Yankee offense. Entering Sunday, Judge led all of baseball with eight home runs, 19 RBIs, and an eye-popping .782 slugging percentage.
LeMahieu, on the other hand, is leading the American League with a ridiculous .389 batting average and 21 total hits.
We’ll see how long this hamstring tightness keeps Stanton out of the lineup, but until then, expect Judge and LeMahieu to continue doing the heavy lifting.
