Over the years, New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton has become notorious for his tendency to get injured.
His performance has dipped over the last couple of years, with a.870 OPS in 2021, a.759 mark in 2022, and a.695 OPS this past season.
Not only that, but he has suffered all kinds of lower-body injuries in recent seasons, strains, sprains, tears, tightness, you name it.
Calves, hamstrings, quads, ankles, heel… Stanton has been having some real bad luck.
The last time he played somewhere in the neighborhood of 162 games was in 2018, with 158.
After that, it has become ugly.
Still, to see his own general manager, Brian Cashman, publicly saying that he is expecting more of the same for 2024 was shocking, to say the least.
Per Talkin’ Yanks, Cashman said to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News that: “He (Stanton) is going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game”.
Again, there is not a single lie there but it was an odd thing to discuss in public, or at least a less than ideal choice of words.
Still, the Yankees might have a problem in Stanton, who played just 101 games last year.
They would love it if he, at least, was productive when healthy, but that’s not the case anymore.
He is now 34 and trending in the wrong direction, making a considerable amount of money and with little reason to be optimistic about a marked improvement in 2024.
Still, there is enough power in his right-handed bat for the Yanks to dream about a return to form.
