The New York Yankees have been a revolving door of injuries the past two years. The majority of their starting outfield was injured before spring training even began this year. With the coronavirus pandemic setting everything back months, the Yankees had ample time to recover and heal from previous injuries.
Players like Aaron Judge, James Paxton, Aaron Hicks, and Giancarlo Stanton have had an additional 4-5 months to prepare for the second wave of training camp and a condensed regular season, scheduled to start in late July.
On a conference call with Brian Cashman on Tuesday, he stated that Giancarlo Stanton would likely be a full go as the DH option, but that he hasn’t partaken in any outfield drills yet. Stanton suffered a grade 1 calf strain back in February; grade 1 being the very minimum of strain intensities.
Giancarlo Stanton has been out since late February with a right calf strain. Brian Cashman said that Stanton should be a full go as a DH option, but he hasn't done any outfield drills yet.
— Bryan Hoch ?? (@BryanHoch) June 30, 2020
The slugger still hasn’t taken any outfield reps, even in a practice scenario. This is very problematic for a player that struggled with soft tissue injuries last year and has clearly carried those same ailments into 2020.
The New York Yankees should be preparing to feature others in the outfield
Five months after he suffered the injury, Stanton is still struggling with the ability to field balls, as we can derive from Cashman’s statements. It is quite blasphemous that we are still talking about a minor Injury that occurred almost half a year ago. Whether it be the former strength and conditioning coach Matt Krause and his methods or Stanton simply preferring to be a bodybuilder over a professional athlete; this is a controversial situation considering he cannot return to full health following such a minor injury.
Stanton played in just 18 games last year, earning 59 at-bats which saw him hit three homers, 13 RBIs, and landed a .288 batting average. This was the least amount of games he has played in his career by a fair margin, having started in 158 two years ago in his first year with the Yankees. He had 38 homers, 100 RBIs, and logged a .266 batting average.
If Stanton can return to full health and at least rotate in at leftfield occasionally, the Yankees will be getting some sort of defensive value from him. However, it seems as if he will be mostly an offensive threat as the DH, giving players like Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier more opportunity to start in the outfield. Again, it is mine blowing that he has yet to begin taking flyballs or any sort of activities in the outfield. With spring training 2.0 starting very soon, he could progress quickly, but I wouldn’t bet on it.