TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton feels his Yankees career is lacking.
“It’s definitely incomplete,” he said Tuesday ahead of his ninth season in pinstripes. “The point of being a Yankee is being a champion.”
Now 36 and entering the final two guaranteed seasons of a $325 million, 13-year contract he signed with the Miami Marlins, Stanton has gone on the injured list in seven consecutive seasons but has been a force when healthy.
After missing New York's first 70 games last year because of inflammation in the tendons of both elbows, he hit .273 with 24 homers, 66 RBIs and a .944 OPS in 77 games.
His elbows require constant treatment.
“I’m good. Ready to go,” Stanton maintained. “As I said before, it's not going anywhere. It’s always going to be maintenance, but it didn’t hinder me from any work.”
He said the preparation is “a lot of hold, strengthening, make sure I’m able to maintain holding and swinging with power and throwing.”
A five-time All-Star and the 2017 NL MVP, Stanton has a .258 average with 453 homers — most among active players — and 1,169 RBIs in 16 big league seasons. He is key component in the Yankees batting order.
“With us over the last couple of years (having) become more and more left-handed, his presence in the middle is just really big,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It's like having that guy lingering there, that’s Big G in the middle.”
Stanton had 38 homers with 100 RBIs in his first season with New York in 2018 but missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis.
Noticeably slimmer in 2024, he limited his lost time to 28 games for a strained left hamstring. Stanton finished with 27 homers and 72 RBIs in 114 games and added seven homers and 16 RBIs in 14 postseason games.
He isn't thinking about career stats.
“Numbers like the next one and the next one is good for now,” he said. “Those numbers, 500 or what not, is the same as we're going to win the World Series right now. You got each day to do work and prove and do something positive.”
Stanton is owed $64 million in guaranteed money by the Yankees: $29 million this year, $25 million in 2027 and a $10 million buyout of a $25 million club option for 2028. He comes at a discount because the Marlins owe the Yankees $30 million to offset part of what remains in his contract: $5 million each on July 1 and Oct. 1 in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
However, his salary for purposes of the Yankees' luxury tax payroll is $25 million and since New York is likely to pay the top tax rate of 110%, he adds $27.5 million to the team's tax bill.
Teammates look to Stanton for succinct tips before they bat.
“He just processes things really well and really gains from the things he sees: the experience, the times he faces a pitcher, how he processes that and puts it to use in future at-bats against guys,” Boone said. “I think he knows himself incredibly well as a hitter, but his presence with just the makeup of our club is huge.”
Volpe hopes to return in April
Shortstop Anthony Volpe won't be ready for the March 25 opener but hopes to return in April following surgery on Oct. 14 to repair the labrum in his left shoulder.
He started a hitting progression Monday with dry swings — no ball involved — and hopes to advance soon to hitting off a tee and soft toss.
“My body’s ready to go defensively and running, so the hitting will be what we work through next, and judging on how everything’s gone so far, I’m just excited,” he said.
Volpe hurt the shoulder on May 3. He returned to the lineup two days later but struggled for much of the season. He had a pair of cortisone shots and hit .212 with 19 homers and a career-high 72 RBIs. He went 1 for 15 with 11 strikeouts in the AL Division Series loss to Toronto, making an out in his last 13 at-bats.
Volpe's surgery was more extensive than had been expected following an MRI.
“When I woke up from the surgery and we went through everything, we kind of had an idea of what the best case and what the worst case and everything in between would have been, so I wasn't shocked” he said. “I was just more excited and in pain and motivated.”
Looking back, his left shoulder and side didn't feel like his right after the injury. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said following the surgery that Volpe could start hitting in four months but couldn’t dive on the shoulder for six months.
“The first half rehabbing was tough. It felt like rock bottom as far as physically,” Volpe said. “Probably at the turn of the New Year is when I really started to feel good and I started to do stuff, baseball activity.”
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