From Alex Smith:
Giancarlo Stanton is still yet to partake in any baseball activities at Yankees spring training in Tampa, and now the veteran is headed back to New York for further testing, according to multiple reports.
NJ.com’s Randy Miller was the first to report that Stanton was on his way back to New York to meet with the head of the Yankees’ medical team, Dr. Christopher Ahmad.
According to Miller, surgery “would be the last line of defense, but has so far not been seriously considered.”
Stanton, 35, has been dealing with what the club has referred to as tennis elbow in both of his elbows, which has kept him out of all baseball activities.
The 2017 NL MVP played through elbow issues in 2024, when he ended up slashing .233/.298/.475 with 27 homers and 72 RBI in 114 regular season games. Stanton’s numbers were much better in the playoffs, when he posed a 1.048 OPS with seven home runs and 16 RBI in 14 games.
At this point in his career, Stanton’s days of playing the outfield are behind him, as he didn’t appear at any of the outfield positions during the 2024 season. So as long as Stanton can swing the bat and run the bases, he theoretically could play through elbow discomfort, but testing will show if there’s a larger issue at hand.
Just sign JD Martinez, get him a full camp so that he is ready to go the full season. Martinez wasn’t awful last year, and he didn’t get much of a Spring Training. He also faded BIG time late in the season, so just hope that Stanton can return in September. Mark Canha, also, is intriguing because even in an off year for him last year, he still got on base at a strong clip.
The Yankees apparently will no longer play “New York, New York” after losses. They’ll rotate other Sinatra songs, with “That’s Life” to start. “That’s Life” is pretty much the PERFECT song choice, so they should probably just stick with that.
This is such a good idea I really don’t get how it took them this long to think of it.
I feel like by the ASB the official Sinatra song of the NYY is going to be Send in the Clowns.
Sic…they’re already here
I’m hoping for “I did it my way” after some classic base ruining.
I’d go with The Best Is Yet To Come, tho that would be a lie. Maybe when it was 96, it was a very good year.
Speaking of the Yankees in the 1990s, RIP Al Trautwig. He never got over MSG losing the Yankees.
Aaron Boone said in Fort Myers, via @DPLennon, that Stanton went to NY today for something that was “personal in nature” and was “not” related to the issue with his elbows. “I’m going to leave it at that for now,” Boone said.
https://x.com/eboland11/status/1894121007603999167
Assisted suicide, I guess?
Maybe he has a baby mama tucked away in a 40k per month apartment who’s not happy,
How much is Cody Bellinger’s rent?
Saw in SI that Verdugo is now the top FA bat still unsigned.
Emmanuel Berbari, 25, will be the Yankees postgame host for WFAN.
He will continue as the station’s fill-in play-by-player if Dave Sims has a day off.
Who dat?
https://www.emmanuel-berbari.com/
I used to listen to his Sienna broadcasts on my short wave radio.
Pereira with a home run. Be nice if he becomes a thing.
It’d be very useful, if only to use him as trade bait for a third baseman.
Another one bites the dust
*Scott Effross threw 1 pitch and left game holding his leg
That dude is fucking CURSED.
Or is it the team that acquired him?
Pinstripe Alley “Ben Rice rapped a 111-mph single to lead off the top of the first inning. It’s the hardest-hit ball we’ve ever had tracked for Rice and backs up his own claim that he’s hitting the ball harder than any other point in his career.”
If he could actually be a big league catcher, that’d be AMAZING, right?
So he’ll start the year in a platoon with Goldschmidt, till Goldy gets injured midway through the year, and at that point Rice will finish the year in a platoon with DJ.
I mean, wouldn’t it be better if Wells proved he’s what he was most of last year, and Rice really claimed 1B?
If Rice can catch, he’ll guarantee himself a regular spot in the lineup (likely 2 starts every week). If he hits well, THEN he can graduate to a bigger role. Being able to catch, though, is the key for him to get on to the roster with a chance to prove himself.
goldy has been both productive and durable, i hope that continues this year. i’d really like to see him play 140 games between dh and first.
What if Stanton has a disease in his peen
Ugly Giancarlo Dickshot?
top marks
I am not liking all of the buzz about Stanton possibly retiring. I think it’s just nonsense pulled from people’s collective ass, but it’s still unsettling.
Who’s saying that? And also it’s an extremely weird thing to lie about
Stanton was trending on social media with a rumor about him possibly retiring. No real sources, so it’s probably just bullshit, but as you note, that’s a weird thing to come out of NOWHERE, ya know?
That’s a lot of money to surrender.
Cronin, sent you an email
J.C. Escarra collected many five-star ratings driving for Uber. Now he’s getting rave reviews as a Yankees catcher:
https://x.com/RyanGarciaESM/status/1894538787809530034
Do we care if Stanton retires? With his sub 300 OBP the last 3 years I don’t. Hopefully they will find someone who can be a 1 WAR player for less than $25m. If he does retire the only bad part is that they didn’t know about it earlier when they could have done something interesting. Now Cashman might take the money and sign..,Verdugo? Trade for Arenado?
Arenado might not be a bad idea at that point but they would probably pocket the money
You know we’re at a dire point in the offseason when MLBTR is running a poll about who should be the Cubs fifth starter
Fun fact about Nolan Arenado: his average exit velocity last season was lower than Anthony Volpe’s average exit velocity. Also, Arenado’s max exit velocity was lower than Volpe’s last season.
https://x.com/LittleJ_03/status/1894799063494619267
And all the time you were complaining about Volpe! See, he’s great!
Scott Effross Grade 2 strain left hamstring. Effross received a platelet-rich plasma injection this morning and appears to be facing a relatively lengthy absence. “It’s going to take some time,” Boone told the Yankees beat.
Oh, for f*’s sake.
Honestly, I wasn’t exactly relying on Effross being a big part of this bullpen, ya know?
Gene Hackman deserved better.
it’s bizarre, horrifying
I don’t even want to think about it.
Rodon, 2 starts in ST, 2 clunkers. He’s ready!
Had Rendon not spurned the Dodgers would they have got Mookie, or Ohtani?
https://mollyknight.substack.com/p/how-anthony-rendons-decision-to-spurn?utm_medium=ios
Not getting Rendon has to be one of the best things to have happened to LA in the past ten years
The Dodgers giving the Yankees shit after they beat them was pretty unclassy, but holy shit, Nestor, shut the fuck up about how you think the Yankees were the better team! No one wants to hear “We were the better team” from the team that lost a series in five fucking games! I think we all agree that the series was closer than it looked, but it wasn’t CLOSE to “we were the better team.”
Yeah that was just dumb. As a Yankee fan it doesn’t make me feel better and I certainly don’t agree.
I don’t know. What’s so awful about a player thinking his team was actually better?
Even if he’s wrong, so what?
I have no problem with that.
Luis Gil was shutdown during his bullpen today. He’ll get an MRI tomorrow. Boone said he felt tight during bullpen
https://x.com/M_Marakovits/status/1895575348223594822
Well that’s terrible news for a guy coming off a career high in innings pitched and a TJS already.
Do these guys just not work out until Spring Training?!
Sure would be nice if we knew WHERE he felt the tightness, right?
Another cursed Yankee, JT Brubaker, broke three ribs trying to get out of the way of a comebacker.
The curse of Judge’s glove seems to be upon the Yankees.