Andres Chavez
The bat speed is still there. That’s the wild part.
In a season where his elbows felt like they were wrapped in barbed wire, where something as simple as twisting open a bottle turned into a mini–arm wrestling match with himself, Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton still mashed like a middle-of-the-order nightmare. A 158 wRC+. Twenty-four homers in just 77 games. That’s not surviving. That’s detonating baseballs.
And yet, 2025 was labeled a rough year, health-wise at least.
Let’s be honest about what we watched. The version of Stanton the New York Yankees rolled out last summer was half-healthy and still top-tier. His 158 wRC+ wasn’t just good; it placed him among the elite power bats in the sport on a rate basis. Over a full 150-game slate, that pace projects to roughly 45-plus home runs and well north of 100 RBIs. That’s MVP-level thunder.
The problem wasn’t production. It was availability.
Chronic tendinitis in both elbows — tennis elbows, as he calls it — cost him virtually half the season. Multiple PRP injections. Pain that bled into daily life. And now here we are in late February, the sun hanging over George Steinbrenner Field, and the situation hasn’t magically disappeared.
“I can’t open a bottle. I can’t open a bag of chips. That doesn’t matter. I want a full season,” Stanton told NJ.com’s Randy Miller.
That line hits harder than any exit velocity reading. This isn’t some guy trying to squeeze out a few final paychecks. This is a 36-year-old slugger who knows exactly what he is — a power weapon built to do one thing — and refuses to let aching tendons define the final chapters of his prime.
The Poster Child for Stubborn Greatness
Aaron Boone didn’t mince words either.
“For me, he’s the poster child of mentally tough,” Boone said. “I don’t know how else to say it. It’s true: Poster child.”
Boone’s right, even if the phrasing feels a little rehearsed. Stanton’s toughness has always been questioned by lazy observers who equate injured with soft. That narrative has aged poorly. The man played through pain that would send most of us straight to the couch with an ice pack and a pity party.
You want context? Since 2022, Stanton’s average exit velocity has hovered around 93–95 mph, consistently in the top 10 percent of MLB hitters. His hard-hit rate last season sat comfortably above 50 percent. When he connects, the ball leaves in a hurry. That kind of violence doesn’t come from a player protecting his elbows like fragile porcelain.
He also doesn’t regret skipping surgery.
“You get the surgery and you can go back to being in the general population in a few months, but my job is to put some of the most force into a batted ball,” he said. “That’s not going to be fixed in surgery, and I don’t care what any doctor says because they don’t know what’s going on.”
That’s defiance. Maybe even a little madness. But elite hitters are wired differently. Surgery might help him carry groceries. It doesn’t guarantee he’ll drive a 99 mph heater 430 feet into the left-field seats in the Bronx.
And that’s the calculation.
A Yankees Lineup That Needs the Hammer
The Yankees can talk about depth all they want, but this lineup still changes shape when Stanton is right. Pitchers attack differently. Bullpens warm up earlier. Mistakes disappear.
When Stanton played in 2025, the Yankees’ offense looked dangerous.
The elephant in the room continues to be the World Series. The one that’s eluded this franchise for too long by its own standards. Stanton knows it. The clubhouse knows it. You can feel it in every spring quote.
He plans to make his debut next week. Full season, he says. He’s betting on pain tolerance and maintenance over a scalpel. Risky? Sure. Necessary? Absolutely.
If he gives them 120 games at anything close to last year’s per-game production, we’re not debating his contract or his durability anymore. We’re talking about one of the most feared sluggers in baseball anchoring a contender.
And if he does it while barely being able to open a bag of chips? That just makes the story better.
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