Giancarlo Stanton is trending toward the strangest Yankees tenure of any great player in team history.
Yes, your initial instinct may be tying Stanton to Alex Rodriguez or Dave Winfield. But consider:
A-Rod was a Yankee for 13 years, including the suspension season. He was a seven-time All-Star, two-time MVP who won three Silver Slugger awards and a World Series in pinstripes.
Winfield did not win a title, of course. But in his eight full seasons (he was traded to the Angels 20 games into his ninth), he was an eight-time All-Star, five-time Silver Slugger, five-time Gold Glover and was top-12 in MVP voting six times.
Stanton has been here six years, including this current one. He’s made one All-Star team. Hell, Gary Sheffield did more here in half the time — two All-Star teams, two Silver Sluggers, two top-10 MVP finishes.
The disparity is staggering, even when Stanton’s injury issues are taken into account. And even more so when you think long-term. Stanton could retire with 500 home runs, play the majority of his career with the Yankees and, at the rate things are going, have accomplished almost nothing in pinstripes.
Or he could rise to the occasion, starting Friday when the Bombers start the second half of this frustrating season at the Rockies.
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The Yankees need one of two things from Stanton: He carries them in Aaron Judge’s absence and earns his massive paycheck. Or the Southern California native waives his no-trade clause — the only way general manager Brian Cashman has any realistic hope of transforming his wildly flawed roster in-season.
We will hit on the latter first. Stanton is 33, made of glass and under contract for at least four more seasons after this one with $118 million guaranteed, plus a $10 million buyout if a 2028 team option is exercised. It is hard to imagine anyone is jumping to acquire him. So Yankees fans should not get their hopes up.
But if there is a game-changing move to be made this summer, Stanton almost assuredly has to go. Owner Hal Steinbrenner’s spending hesitancies have the Yankees in a precarious position. You need to hold onto prized prospects at all costs because they are integral to being a cost-controlled championship contender. But if they are not your currency, you must spend actual money to improve the team. And save Steinbrenner pulling a Steve Cohen, the Yankees need Stanton off the books to get it.
There may be a path here, albeit a narrow one. Could Cashman talk the Padres into Stanton, a Southern California native, being the centerpiece of a deal for Juan Soto? And could he then convince Stanton to sign off and go home? A long shot, sure. But San Diego has the money (after the Yankees eat some of the remaining cost). And Stanton allows them to get something for Soto while still trying to win now.
(Cashman could try the same approach with the Angels and Shohei Ohtani, but it is hard to imagine they have any use for Stanton.)
That all is unlikely to happen though. So back to reality. It is high time Stanton produces like the superstar he is paid to be. That two-homer game against the Cubs the other day cannot be a fluke. It needs to be a regular occurrence. Now, and after Judge returns too.
A .203 average, a .276 on-base percentage, a .702 OPS and a negative WAR are just not going to cut it. The Yankees are doomed if it does. Yes, D.J. LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo have been awful too. They don’t make $32 million a year. And they actually can play the field, rather than force manager Aaron Boone to run the RailRider All-Stars out there every night in their stead.
To those screaming about Stanton’s postseason production: Yes, he has performed in October. But the numbers are really not that spectacular — a .260 average overall and the bulk of his power damage done in the 2020 COVID-19 bubble — in the grand scheme. Moreover, they are beside the point. The Yankees may not get to the postseason if Stanton does not come alive. They need him now, not then. The next 71 games must be Stanton’s finest hours.
James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
