“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings,” muses Little Zuzu at the end of the timeless Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life.
Baseball has a similar addage: Whenever Giancarlo Stanton is injured, the season has officially begun. The 2025 MLB campaign came extra early with Stanton’s latest bump in the road. Per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, Stanton has pain in both elbows from what is essentially tennis elbow. Naturally, he may not be ready for Opening Day.
Giancarlo Stanton will be slow-played during Spring Training because of discomfort in both elbows, which Aaron Boone likened to tennis elbow. Boone said it is an issue Stanton was dealing with last season, including the playoffs.
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) February 16, 2025
Stanton himself described the pain as “very high,” so there’s no other choice but to take him at his word.
Giancarlo Stanton is injured at some point in baseball season. And in other news, former Spanish dictator Genaralissimo Francisco Franco is still very very dead.
We’ve seen this year after year save for Stanton’s MVP season with the Marlins in 2017. At some point, he misses a month or two with a soft tissue injury. In extreme cases, like 2019, they pile up so much to the point of practically costing him a season.
And what bad timing for Stanton’s New York Yankees too, right? Stanton was still effective through injury last season, batting .233 with 27 home runs and a 116 wRC+ in 2024. His absence not only hurts the Yankees for baseball reasons, but also makes losing Juan Soto to the Mets sting more.
Without Giancarlo Stanton, who is the big bat to complement Aaron Judge? His new outfield counterpart Cody Bellinger? Austin Wells? A collective bounce-back and breakout campaign from Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice?
Look, for what it’s worth, it’s still early in spring training. Exhibition games haven’t even started and Opening Day isn’t until March 27. For all we know, the Yankees and Stanton might get lucky and not miss any games at all.
But every game he misses makes the Yankees’ hopes of getting back to the World Series harder and harder. The sooner Giancarlo Stanton can get back in the batter’s box, the better.
