As the second half of the season began Friday night, Giancarlo Stanton inched closer to a return — possibly within the next week, if not sooner.
The Yankees surely could use him, assuming he can get back to the level of production he was providing before straining his hamstring on June 22 — though that has not been the case in each of the last two seasons when Stanton returned from leg injuries.
In both 2023 and 2022, Stanton was hitting well before landing on the injured list, only for that to throw a wrench into his season and drive his productivity off the cliff.
The Yankees need that to be different this time to give the middle of their lineup a jolt.
“We’re hoping that the injury was minor enough this go-around, and a little bit different, that he’s in a better spot returning physically and hopefully hits the ground running,” manager Aaron Boone said Friday before opening a four-game series against the Rays in The Bronx. “We’re talking about one and two times where things have happened — that doesn’t define everything. We feel like he’s in a good spot. I think he does. So you gotta trust in that.”
Boone said the Yankees planned to get together with Stanton this weekend to determine his next steps before a potential return.
On Friday afternoon, the 34-year-old DH was running the bases and hit inside, with Boone saying Stanton is doing full baseball activities.
“He’s definitely really close,” Boone said.
The Yankees have been noncommittal on whether Stanton will go on a rehab assignment, despite missing around four weeks.
Boone has pointed to the technology the Yankees have at their disposal — including the Trajekt, a pitching machine that simulates real major league pitchers and their specific pitches for hitters to face — that can help Stanton prepare for a return and potentially skip rehab games.
He does not have to play the field, so it is mostly a decision about whether he can get his timing back in simulated settings instead of real (minor league) game action.
But what the Yankees have done the last two years has not worked out well.
When Stanton landed on the IL for six weeks early last season, he was batting .269 with a .854 OPS through 13 games.
In 88 games after returning — following a one-game rehab assignment — he hit just .179 with a .670 OPS and often looked like someone who was trying to avoid injuring himself again.
In 2022, Stanton was batting .285 with a .862 OPS through 40 games before going on the IL with a calf strain.
He only missed the minimum 10 days, so he did not go on a rehab assignment, but upon returning hit just .167 with a .748 OPS across 40 games before landing back on the IL with Achilles tendinitis in late July.
That injury cost him a month, and after playing in two rehab games, he came back to hit .165 with a .633 OPS across his final 30 games.
Before pulling his hamstring running from second to home last month — on the heels of an offseason spent slimming down to try to help him avoid these soft-tissue injuries — Stanton was batting .246 with a .795 OPS and 18 home runs in 69 games.
More importantly, he was providing a consistent threat in the middle of the order, either batting cleanup against lefties (and some righties) or fifth.
Stanton returning at the level he was playing at before the injury would help deepen the lineup and perhaps offer better protection behind Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
Yankees cleanup hitters this season entered the second half with the majors’ lowest OPS at .583, with Alex Verdugo currently struggling in that spot and Boone acknowledging that “somebody’s gotta grab that.”
“There’s no question going through this, especially the consistency with what [Stanton] was showing, we certainly have missed it,” Boone said. “Looking forward to getting him back.”