Yankees: I Must Have Missed Something – Wasn’t Stanton Set For LF?

Giancarlo Stanton - Yankees Failed Experiment (Photo: northjersey.com)

Do the Yankees have a new spin on Stanton’s well-advertised but still invisible appearance in left field? Get his $200 million butt out there!

The Yankees, as if their season isn’t annoying enough, are at it again.

A week ago, Aaron Boone, with no prompting, took it upon himself to say he was ready to make Giancarlo Stanton earn a small portion of the $29 million the Yankees are paying him this year by playing in the field.

As reported by Brian Hoch for MLB.com, the story went like this:

“Stanton has been in the lineup exclusively as the designated hitter for each of the last two seasons. Interestingly, his return to the outfield could come in an American League park, where the team still has the benefit of a designated hitter. Instead, manager Aaron Boone suggested the decision to play Stanton in the outfield for the first time since Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS could come because there is less ground to cover in left field at Fenway Park.”Brian Hoch, MLB.com

Yankees And The Invisible Man

Well, either I must have missed something, or Aaron Boone once again received word from upstairs – “No, absolutely not. Workaround him, Aaron”.

Aaron Boone: Man on the hot seat spinning tales (mlb.com)
Aaron Boone: Man on the hot seat spinning tales (mlb.com)

With the Yankees playing on artificial turf in Tampa, Boone, of course, has a ready-made excuse, but oddly, the “tough” New York media hasn’t bothered to ask him.

And that’s not to mention the Yankees will be playing away games against the Marlins, Mets, and Braves where there will be no DH.

So now, the ball is thrust back into Boone’s court to make do with a player who strikes out more than twice the number of walks he gets and who has already hit into 13 double plays from the DH spot.

This, while Aaron Judge is forced to play right field every day, as he and others are blocked by Stanton from having a day in the DH spot.

Yankees: Who To Be Angrier At?

I don’t know who makes me angrier: Steinbrenner and Cashman for allowing a single player to dictate the team’s lineup – or Boone for not taking a stand against his bosses.

Either way, it’s a pity and merely another signal the Yankees are content to compound previous mistakes (trading for Stanton in the first place) with more mistakes.

Yankees Hal Steinbrenner & Brian Cashman - Blending Perfectly Photo Credit: The Captain's Blog
Hal Steinbrenner & Brian Cashman – Blended Perfectly? Photo Credit: The Captain’s Blog

Look at it this way. If Hal Steinbrenner and his penny-pinching ways of late needed a financial windfall, he should welcome Stanton playing in the field.

Why? – and don’t take this the wrong way – but with Stanton’s propensity for injury, he might get lucky enough for Stanton to suffer a season-ending injury that would open the door for the Yankees to collect on his insurance policy down the road.

Now, if you think that’s a farce filled with irony, I don’t care because it’s Stanton who is the one who could call Cashman today with the message, “I’m playing left field tonight.”

Giancarlo Stanton – Already Enough!

But he doesn’t, and he won’t because Giancarlo Stanton is out for Giancarlo Stanton.

Cashman’s hands may be tied now with no place to dump Stanton, but come next season, when the universal DH is adopted, there’ll be fifteen more teams, including the Dodgers who wanted Stanton before Derek Jeter jumped in to punish the Yankees and their stupidity.

Always robust when the Yankees win and Stanton bats .313 with 11 HR’s and 32 RBI, he is nowhere to be found when his team loses, and he manages only .199, 4.and 13, with a minuscule .604 OPS.

Paired once with Aaron Judge, Stanton can’t even carry Judge’s water bottle, much less his stature with the team.

Okay, rant over. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of this crap…

Here’s What Readers Are Saying…

Ray Hernandez (Obviously a Marlin’s fan) S0 GLAD when we traded his overpaid, often injured, overhyped sorry ass! I got tired of watching him choke and leave runners in scoring position! (that’s when he happened to be actually playing!) And l see that in NY, he’s only been in the DH spot because of fear of playing the outfield and getting hurt! Talk about OVERPAID! I just feel bad for all my friends who are Yankee fans that have to continue to tolerate this guy! Best of luck in trying to trade his ass!

Robert Rosado Herrand Bringing Stanton to the Bronx is the worse thing Cashman has done

Bruce Sadler If I am the Yankees.I will not put him in left field .he will get injured.I am surprised he does not get injured every time he swings the bat. He looks so timid at-bats .he is a professional and there is no way I could come close to hitting 65 mph baseball let alone 99 mph. but he looks different than when with the marlins

Lew Blaukopf Stanton + LF = IL

Mitch Bondo Bandalan I truly understand the frustration. Stanton should play the field. He was brought over after winning the 2017 NL MVP while playing the outfield. Its time.

Robert Hafner Honestly he’s becoming a hitting liability too …he only gets hits when it doesn’t matter…but he should play the field at some point

James Pinos (another from a non-Yankees’ fan) I laughed so hard when other fans cried about the Stanton trade saying Jeter did us a favor and I said screwed us already had injury issues and Judge was the same guy and better defensively, the player we should have dealt for on Marlins was Yelich everything we needed good OF and left-handed

Joan Wulterin I’m right there with you! I’ve been saying this all along – another Boone lie

Steven Dogrescuer Once they get his mechanics fixed watch out. Mmm..after all these years…

Mikey Gee Arod 2.0

Phil Christiano Miami makes sense (next year). He played in that outfield before he got rich

Jay LeBlanc You won’t get your money’s worth out of him no matter what. You’ll get even less if you decide to start running him out to the OF a few times a week now that he’s into his thirties.

Billy Touw Steve , if you watch him run the bases he has not turned it on all year, he thinks and the team thinks he is not ready, watch him run the bases tonight in the game

Ed Croghan might help him get his head in the game … sad watching him ..especially swinging at balls in the dirt for his 3rd strike My thoughts too.

Fanof Baseballo I say play him and see what he’s capable of. I think if he plays regularly in the field, he’ll actually be less likely to get injured because his body is staying warm and active rather than sitting for 9 innings. If he gets injured, put him on the DL and collect injury insurance if you can (not sure what their policies look like with him, but I assume not too bad since he signed at a young age.)

Closing Published Comments And Final Thoughts

We’ve about reached page length restrictions, so with this published comments are closed.

I picked an easy target in Stanton here, so not surprisingly, readers can’t wait to say sayonara. If only it could have been a different story…

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Author: stevecontursi

I am an amateur writer with a passion for baseball and all things Yankees and Mets.