TAMPA — In Giancarlo Stanton’s first and healthiest year as a Yankee, he slugged 38 home runs, knocked in 100 runs and posted an .852 OPS. He received MVP votes for that 2018 campaign.
Consider those impressive, if human, numbers a starting point for this season.
If Stanton stays healthy, the Yankees expect his output to dwarf his initial year in The Bronx.
“He’s a way better hitter than that [2018 season],” manager Aaron Boone said after Stanton’s bat got off to a loud start in his Grapefruit League debut Wednesday. “If Giancarlo goes out there and is healthy, plays 130, 140 games.
“I still think a massive season is in there.”
The health, as always, is the asterisk. Stanton played in just 19 games in 2019 due to various injuries, the most significant a sprained PCL in his right knee.
A hamstring injury basically cut his 2020, shortened season in half. He has been healthier but still banged up the past two seasons, when he has averaged 124 ¹/₂ games.
Stanton was terrific for the first three months of last season, earning his fifth All-Star Game nod and drilling 19 home runs in his first 63 games, with an .885 OPS through the end of June.
But injuries began to strike in July, when ankle and foot issues hampered him the rest of the season.
“His numbers fell off because he was working through something at the end,” Boone said of Stanton, who finished with a career-worst .759 OPS. “But he’s a much more polished and understanding-who-he-is … hitter the last couple years.”
Boone believes a 33-year-old Stanton still has the bat speed and “massive power” but now has the experience and wisdom to further punish pitchers.
Wednesday, one opposing pitcher was punished too severely.
The first ball Stanton swung at in the exhibition season was a fastball from Washington’s Cory Abbott, a pitch redirected 112.4 mph right back at Abbott’s calf.
“Spring, I always seem to hit a pitcher,” Stanton said with a slight smile after Abbott — who would be fine — recovered and threw him out at first. “Good thing [the ball] was low. I know it’s not going to feel good later.”
Stanton’s second and final swing of the 4-2 win at Steinbrenner Field was another barreled-up missile to right-center field that died at the warning track.
Boone said Stanton has been “locked in” even in the Yankees’ simulated games, which continued into the first semi-real contest: Aaron Judge’s bash brother swung twice, dented two balls and made two outs.
“I want the fly outs to the wall. I want the line-outs, get them all out here,” said Stanton, whose biggest tests this spring are still to come.
Stanton served as the DH in his debut and has been shagging balls in the outfield during early workouts.
The Yankees will work Stanton into the outfield “in some capacity,” Stanton said, which could include games in right field.
Judge has volunteered to move from right to left in games particularly at Yankee Stadium, which has a shorter right field for Stanton to roam.
“I feel wholeheartedly that it serves him well to play the outfield physically,” Boone said of Stanton, who played the outfield for 38 of his 110 games last season. “Now, he’s gotta be able to do it.”
Playing Stanton in the outfield, even on occasion, would open up the DH spot for another hitter who could use a day off from the field.
Plus, it would be one more way for the Yankees to fit Stanton’s bat into the lineup.
“He’s older and the key is being able to stay healthy,” Boone said. “If he does, he’s still capable of big things.”