With the Yankees’ lineup currently loaded with left-handed hitters, the team is hoping for a happy and healthy new year for the righty-swinging Giancarlo Stanton.
Of course, hoping for is not the same as counting on when it comes to the designated hitter’s health, as Stanton’s injury history is extensive. His time with the Yankees has been plagued by lower-body aches and pains, and lingering tennis elbows bothered him during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Those elbows delayed the start of the 36-year-old’s 2025 campaign — Stanton missed spring training — and required continuous maintenance after he made his season debut in mid-June. However, he did not undergo surgery after the season, and Aaron Boone has expressed confidence that Stanton will participate in camp in a few months.
“I never want to speak in absolutes like that, but I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot going into the winter,” Boone said at the very start of the offseason, adding that Stanton’s elbows will continue to get treatment.
Boone gave a similar update at the Winter Meetings earlier this month.
“He went into the winter in a pretty good spot. A little bit beat up like everyone, but not rehabbing something, so to speak, which is good,” the manager said. “Obviously, he’s been through a lot physically with his body and the different things that he’s had to deal with. I think that experience has served him well as far as just knowing what to do and how to do it. Hopefully, that means him being out there for the bulk of the season and not having stints where he’s down, but we’ll see.”
Stanton shined for the Yankees once he took the field in 2025, mashing 24 home runs in 77 games. He tacked on 66 RBI, a .273 average and a .944 OPS before an atypically quiet postseason, and he never returned to the injured list. Stanton even used his glove after exclusively DH’ing in 2024, handling some corner outfield duties with Aaron Judge nursing a flexor strain and barred from defense for a stretch.
Since 2024, which followed a rough two-year stretch, Stanton has 51 homers and an .838 OPS over 191 games. That doesn’t include the seven homers and the 1.048 OPS he posted in the 2024 playoffs.
If Stanton can stay relatively healthy and remain productive — he’s not getting any younger — it would mitigate the Yankees’ unbalanced lineup issue.
At the Winter Meetings, Brian Cashman said it is a “problem” how left-handed the group is. As of now, the Yankees are projected to have five everyday players who swing from the port-side: catcher Austin Wells, first baseman Ben Rice, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., third baseman Ryan McMahon and center fielder Trent Grisham. Re-signing Cody Bellinger would add another, though he has no trouble with southpaws. If not, youngsters Jasson Domínguez, a switch-hitter who is superior from the left side, or Spencer Jones, another lefty, could platoon with a right-handed addition in left.
The Yankees could alleviate their lefty problem with a “challenge trade” — Cashman’s term for dealing major league talent for major league talent — but Stanton, Judge and José Caballero would be the only right-handed regulars at the start of the season as things currently stand.
Last year, the hulking Judge and Stanton had right-handed help from Paul Goldschmidt. The veteran free agent first baseman logged a .981 OPS against lefties overall but became less effective against them as the season dragged on.
The team also added righties Caballero, Austin Slater and Amed Rosario before the trade deadline to give Boone some platoon options. Rosario recently re-signed, offering the Yankees a right-handed choice at third, second and in the outfield. He’s also going to work on becoming an option at first, though Rice is expected to face lefties more in 2026.
Still, Judge and Stanton could end up being the only feared right-handed regulars — no disrespect to the pesky Caballero, who is expected to fill in for the injured and right-handed Anthony Volpe — in the lineup, as such bats are in short supply. If so, Stanton’s health will be crucial to the club.
“I definitely want to give Aaron Boone some legitimate choices so he can match up when we’re facing a left-handed starter because, obviously, we’re so left-handed,” Cashman said. “It’s a vulnerability right now, and there’s not a lot of right-handed bats in the game that are accessible. That’s why you have to have some tough conversations and some tough considerations along the way to see if you can balance out. But it might take longer.”
