Mattingly not ready to move slumping Stanton from cleanup spot
After stumbling through a brutal road trip, Giancarlo Stanton's slump continued Friday in Miami, where the beleaguered 26-year-old extended his hitless streak to 16 at-bats after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in a 4-1 loss to the Washington Nationals.
Still, though Stanton remains mired in one of the worst slumps of his career, manager Don Mattingly hasn't considered moving the three-time All-Star out of the cleanup spot.
"Not at this point," Mattingly told MLB.com's Joe Frisaro of potentially moving Stanton out of the fourth spot. "He's one of our guys. He's a big part of our club. He's going to hit his way out of it. It's something, if he needs a day off, we just had a day off. We're going to keep going."
Mattingly's vote of confidence came shortly after Stanton - whose last hit came Sunday in D.C. - became just the fourth player in the last quarter-century to go hitless in a four-game span while striking out a dozen times, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Despite working closely with hitting coach Barry Bonds ahead of Friday's series opener, Stanton is on the verge of tying the second-longest hitless streak of his career, a miserable stretch from July 2-6, 2013, in which he went 17 straight at-bats without a hit.
As a result of his recent struggles, almost two months into the 2016 campaign, Stanton owns career-lows in batting average (.214), OPS (.813), and wRC+ (114), with ugly swing metrics considerably off from his career marks.
| Season | Contact% | K% | Hard-Hit% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 62.9% | 33.1% | 36% |
| Career | 67.8% | 28.6% | 41.6% |
Now that the Marlins are back home, though, Stanton may be able to bust out of his skid. On the road, Stanton didn't get a ton of opportunities to swing, explained Bonds, who stepped into the box and took a few cut while working with his scuffling pupil on the field Friday at Marlins Park.
"We haven't had time to come out early and stuff like that," Bonds said. "We've been on the road traveling. It's been raining everywhere we go. We had some early hitting sessions set up on the road, but just really couldn't get to it. He wanted to get out and just work on some things he wanted to work out."
Bonds understands better than most to keep it loose in his sessions with Stanton, who boasts a .920 OPS (149 OPS+) with 136 homers since the start of 2012.
"You have to be careful with what you say and how you present it," Bonds said. "I've got to have the right questions for him, and we have to be on the same page. He expressed some things that he likes to do, and that also helps me. Now, when I'm looking at things or watching film, or whatever, I can see what he likes to do, and I can help guide him back to what he needs to do, and what has worked for him in the past and what can help him in the future."