New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton has been dealing with discomfort in both of his elbows, said manager Aaron Boone, who compared the issue to “tennis elbow.” Stanton said that “the pain was very high” and that what he was experiencing was “definitely not just soreness,” which has prevented him from swinging a baseball bat for three to four weeks.
“I was dealing with it last year, so it was a manageable thing,” he said. “We’ll just give it as much time as possible before we’ve got to get rolling for a full year here… Look, tennis elbow or whatever they call it, [there are] tears in your tendon. So [if you ask] when did it feel good, when did it feel bad, there’s always a pain level there. You’ve got to deal with that. It’s just the wisest point to give time right now.”
Aaron Boone said on Sunday that the Yanks will “slow-play” Stanton through Spring Training. Unfortunately, Boone added that Stanton might not be available for the Yankees’ March 27th season opener against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“He was doing stuff [in the offseason], and then he kind of shut down and got treatments,” Boone said. “It’s just something we don’t want to rush if we can get to a really good spot and know we’re going to have to probably deal with some maintenance with it throughout the year. We don’t want to force anything too early.”
Giancarlo Stanton was the best slugger in the 2024 MLB Playoffs. He led all players in home runs (seven) and RBIs (16). Stanton also finished tied for sixth in hits with 15 in 14 games played.
The Yankees’ 2025 season is off to a bad start
Things have not gone well for the Bronx Bombers since the 2024 campaign ended. In December, All-Star outfielder Juan Soto left the team to sign a 15-year, $765 million contract with the Yank’s cross-town rival: the New York Mets. Things recently took a turn for the worse when potential free agent target Alex Bregman agreed to a three-year deal with divisional rival Boston. Now, the Yankees are unsure if their second-best player will be ready to go for Opening Day. The Yanks have been in a downward spiral for months.
Even though he won the AL MVP award, Aaron Judge looked like a shell of himself in the postseason. His per-game home run rate, per-game RBI rate, and batting average all dropped off tremendously in the playoffs while his strikeout rate increased. Based on that failure to produce, Soto and Stanton looked like New York’s best players during the postseason. Now, Soto is elsewhere, and Stanton could miss the start of the season. That’s not a good recipe for replicating success after reaching your first World Series in 15 years.
It’s only the first game of the season, but this highlights a worrisome trend we have seen throughout Giancarlo Stanton’s tenure with the Yankees. Not only has he never played a full 162-game season during his MLB career, but he has missed at least 48 games each of the last three years. On top of that, he might not even be ready to go for the first game of the 2025 season. While it’s better to have him healthy for the playoffs rather than some fairly inconsequential games in March and April, you always want your team to put forward the best possible roster on Opening Day. That will not be the case if Stanton can’t go on March 27th.
More importantly, it’s bad that your power-hitting former All-Star has pain in BOTH of his elbows. Even if he describes the pain as “manageable,” he was dealing with this problem last year as well. That’s not what you want to hear from your 35-year-old DH. I believe that Aaron Boone’s “slow-play” approach to Stanton will allow him to play most of the Yankees’ games this season, but I would not be surprised at all if these elbow injuries come back to haunt him and New York later in the year.
I am confident that the Yankees will be a playoff team and will once again compete for a World Series Championship. However, this is definitely NOT how New York players, management, and fans wanted to start 2025 Spring Training.
