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Never more precious.
Never less dispensable.
While those two descriptions don’t always go hand in hand, they certainly do when it comes to Giancarlo Stanton and his rugged 2021.
Remember when Stanton looked like an intractable, inflexible and untradeable entity, an albatross around the Yankee payroll for the foreseeable future? Well, if the 31-year-old hasn’t done anything else this year, he’s surely increased his appeal with other clubs. Not only does he hit baseball, bringing a .267 / .368 / .476 slash line in Tuesday night’s game against the Braves at Truist Park, but he does it loose, his 104 games and 435 home plate appearances topping. easily the 41 and 166, he totaled in 2019 and 2020 combined. Only last month, moreover, he returned to the field after not having played since September 2019; Tuesday night marked his 12th field start in a 25-game period.
To boot, Stanton has done something else this season: combine his success, relative good health, and improved versatility with what’s happened elsewhere around the Yankees roster, and it’s getting harder to consider a trade-off. Stanton during the offseason – an exchange that would only happen with his blessing, thanks to his trade protection, to be clear – as only an escape. The departure of the $ 159 million owed to it until 2027 (and probably no team would shoulder the full bill) would bring some pain on top of the pay cut.
“When he’s doing well he’s obviously a guy who changes the game all the time,” Aaron Boone said of Stanton on Tuesday. “So [we] I just want to keep making sure he’s in the right place as much as we can all help him do, and we’ve seen him in stretches – obviously we’ve seen him in the playoffs, everyone. sort of hopped on his back and he led us through it all. I just want to make sure he continues to stay in a good position and that we continue to get these good results.
Now let’s call a time out so we don’t forget the elephant in the room: even this season, generally healthy (he missed 14 days with a left quad injury in May) and bringing a 131 OPS + to work on Tuesday as he had reached base in 20 straight games, Stanton is crazy. He posted a horrific .214 / .320 / .333 slash line during games on July 23, and had another half-month (from his May 28 return from the injured list to June 15) with a .186 / .286 / .419 line. It comes with the territory of a 6ft 6in guy with awesome mechanics.
“One of the reasons he is able to hit the ball as hard as he is is because so big and so hard and his levers and if he makes everything work properly, those are important assets. “said Boone. “But that’s also why you’ve seen people over the years that it can sometimes be harder for taller people to be really consistent. Because there are more moving parts to get into [a] strong position. So it’s, I’m sure, something that guys who are bigger have to deal with constantly. Advantages, there [are] a lot, but there [are] also challenges.
The Yankees’ most perfect everyday player in 2021 is arguably Aaron Judge… and he may be a free agent after next year, just like his fellow outfielder, newcomer Joey Gallo. Brett Gardner looks likely to retire after the season, and youngsters Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier have had disastrous campaigns. On the designated hitter side, Luke Voit reminded us this year how dangerous he can be… and how injury prone he is.
Perhaps by the end of the season the variables will have changed drastically again. Even having this chat at the end of August, however, is an upheaval. Who thought Stanton would be so good, so right (props to Yankees director of player health and performance Eric Cressey for keeping Stanton and Judge active), this vital? It’s a hell of a development in the middle of a dizzying striped season.
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