It was only a matter of time before New York Yankees star slugger Giancarlo Stanton picked up another injury. This spring, Stanton suffered a calf strain, which kept him out for weeks. What was diagnosed as a grade-1 issue became much more serious, and Stanton still hasn’t taken any reps in the outfield.
Despite his lack of defensive action, Stanton still managed to go down with a hamstring injury on Saturday evening. As the slugger slid into second base, he felt something in his left leg, which subsequently led to him hobbling a bit and leaving the game.
Stanton played in only 18 games and five playoff games during the 2019 campaign. Having left a minimal impact on the team, the Yankees still managed to make the ALCS and record over 100 wins. So far this season, the Yankees have lost Luis Severino and Tommy Kahnle to Tommy John surgery. Prior to the MLB shutting down operations, both Aaron Judge and Stanton were expected to miss Opening Day, but luckily they had months of extra time to recover.
Here’s the latest update on the New York Yankees slugger:
Giancarlo Stanton has a grade 1 hamstring strain, the least serious. Normal estimate is 3-4 weeks for such an injury.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) August 11, 2020
A grade-1 hamstring injury shouldn’t keep them out for too long, but as we saw with his calf injury, Stanton’s recovery process oftentimes takes weeks. Before going down on Saturday, Stanton was hitting .293 with a .585 slugging percentage. His 12 hits over 41 at-bats earned him a .453 on-base percentage, the highest in his entire career, despite a much smaller sample size.
It was clear that Stanton was regaining his form, and this is a significant blow to his rhythm and consistency in this campaign. However, we can only hope for the best and that the injury heals efficiently.