LOS ANGELES – This October, Giancarlo Stanton has reminded us of his bona fides as one of the most prolific postseason players of his generation, but in recent years, much of the discourse surrounding the mammoth slugger has focused more on his shortcomings than in their strengths.
At last year’s general manager meetings, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman surprised some with his comments about what to expect from the former MVP moving forward.
“We try to limit the time he’s inactive, but I’m not going to tell you he’s going to play every game next year because he won’t,” Cashman said. “He will most likely end up hurting himself again, because it seems to be part of his game.”
It was an unusual display of honesty from a GM about a player, one that was met with considerable and understandable setback – but in simple terms, Cashman was right. Hamstring, knee, quadriceps, groin, calf, Achilles tendon; Stanton has been on the injured list due to ailments in virtually every part of his lower half throughout his 15-year career. In turn, his mobility has decreased dramatically, ending his days as an outfielder and severely limiting his speed on the basepaths. Overall, Stanton’s production and availability over the course of a 162-game regular season are undeniably not what they once were.
But even as injuries induced a slow decline from his days as an everyday outfielder competing for MVP awards to his current role as a designated hitter who misses about 50 games a year, Stanton’s quintessential skill has remained: the ability to hit a baseball harder than perhaps any player the game has ever seen.
“That’s huge bat speed,” Yankees assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes said. “He is the best in the world. “That’s where the power comes from.”
Plus the batted ball data he’s tracked since 2015, data that has validated Stanton’s status as unmatched. when it comes to exit velocity – Statcast introduced bat tracking in 2024, offering another look at the physical properties of each hitter’s swing in the form of bat speed. Sure enough, Stanton’s bat speed, even at age 34, exists. on your own levelaveraging 81.2 mph. It’s not hard to imagine this being the case during his prime in Miami, but the fact that Stanton has managed to keep this special trait intact over the years is no small feat.
“You see a lot of guys who are incredibly athletic early in their career and have great bat speed, and that diminishes late in their career,” Dykes said. “For him, he has been able to maintain what he has: being the best in the world at it. “He talks about how diligent he is in his training and how he takes care of himself.”
Stanton’s batting stance has also evolved throughout his career as he intermittently reevaluates his ideal position in the batter’s box to allow him to continue swinging the bat with such ferocity. “It’s been the whole spectrum, from pretty wide to really tight, now to a little tighter,” Stanton said of how he modified his stance by altering the angle and direction of his feet in relation to the pitcher. “I’m always in the lab searching, trying to find ways to be more successful over a long period of time, and that’s changed and evolved over the years. And, you know, I lost some hair and added some gray because of that… but yeah, that’s part of it, and that’s where we are.”
While his secondary skills have largely evaporated, Stanton’s commitment to doing whatever it takes to retain his superior strength and his ability to access it has allowed him to not only remain relevant into his 30s but also re-emerge as a main character in the midst of New York’s run to its first World Series in 15 years. His already stellar postseason resume was further bolstered this month by his epic performance in the American League Championship Series against Cleveland, in which he hit four home runs in five games, earning him MVP honors. of the American League Championship Series. It is the latest chapter in a tremendous career that in many ways has been defined by the long ball.
Stanton, in fact, has been synonymous with home runs for as long as he’s been hitting, something that can’t be said for even his closest peers in the power department. Consider Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, two of the select few players on the planet capable of impacting a baseball in a manner similar to Stanton. We recognize this duo now as the standard-bearers for annual dinger production: No two players have accumulated more long balls over the past four seasons than Judge (196) and Ohtani (178), but it took time for each to translate their physical gifts. in important home run totals.
Ohtani’s thunderous raw power was evident at times early in his careerbut he did not hit more than 22 home runs in a single year, neither in Japan nor in the MLB, until 2021, his ninth professional season. Judge, like Stanton, was a multi-sport star in high school who possessed an unusual combination of size and athleticism, but his supreme strength did not produce eye-catching statistics until he mastered his swing mechanics at the major league level. Judge hit just 18 home runs in 169 college games at Fresno State and never hit more than 20 in a minor league season.
For Stanton, there was no delay. In his first full professional season in 2008, he led the Low-A South Atlantic League with 39 home runs as one of the youngest players in the league. Still a teenager throughout his second pro campaign, Stanton’s slugging prowess propelled him to Double-A, where he continued to hit tape-measure shots that Witnesses still remember about. He made his MLB debut at age 20 in June 2010 and hit a grand slam shortly after. for the first home run of his career.
Since then, 428 more home runs have followed in the regular season, elevating Stanton to 51st on the all-time list. With the retirements of Miguel Cabrera and Nelson Cruz last year, Stanton now holds the title of home run king among active MLB players. Although his pace has slowed in recent years due to injuries, he remains on track to become the 29th member of the 500 home run club.
Of course, chasing those milestones isn’t a concern for Stanton right now. He is completely focused on the task at hand, which is helping the Yankees secure the 28th championship in franchise history. And with each successive ultra-clutch move, it becomes increasingly evident that Stanton’s latest hot streak in October is a product not only of his prodigious power but also of his meticulous preparation. Manager Aaron Boone spoke during the American League Championship Series about how Stanton especially benefits from seeing pitchers multiple times and praised all the work Stanton does behind the scenes to put himself in position to succeed. “His preparation and his ability to focus and concentrate is impressive,” Boone said.
“You have to study pitchers all the time. It doesn’t matter what time of year. You have to do your own homework and create your plan of how you think they’re going to approach you and take information here and there,” Stanton said Thursday. “But at the end of the day, you know your thought process best as a hitter, so it’s better to have your own idea of how you’re going to be approached.”
Beyond the opposite arm study sessions, Stanton also finds immense value in learning the environments in which he will hit. Before Games 3-5 of the American League Championship Series in Cleveland, Stanton and Judge were on the field long before either team’s standard batting practice sessions, swinging the machine in a variety of speeds and angles.
“Unload the backdrop, unload the depth perception,” Stanton said after the Yankees won the American League pennant in Game 5. “It’s very important to be ready to play in the first inning and not have to see a few pitches to get my timing and offload because that could determine the game right there in the first one.”
The two sluggers were also the only Yankees to take live batting practice Thursday during New York’s training camp at Dodger Stadium ahead of Game 1 of the World Series.
“I understand how important every throw, every moment is,” Stanton said of competing this time of year and the work that goes into feeling ready to do so. “I just try to get all the information I can, any film, all the changes I need. I exhaust it. That’s why I’m exhausted after these (games), and I enjoy that. I enjoy that routine. Need. “You’re not always going to go out and perform well, but as long as I have all the information I can, I’ll be in a good place.”
While he’s far from the only Yankee to make his first World Series appearance, Stanton’s wait to reach this point was especially long: Among active players, only Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have played more games. without reaching the World Series than Stanton. before now. That the Dodgers are the opponent serves as an especially compelling backdrop for Stanton’s first Fall Classic. This is not just the team he grew up supporting. It’s also the team that stopped drafting him after he was a high school star in nearby Sherman Oaks and the team that was supposedly his favorite landing spot when it became clear in 2017 that the Marlins were going to trade him.
Stanton has said that Dodger Stadium is his Favorite baseball stadium to play inand it is also the place that has hosted two of his most memorable moments as a Major League player: his 2015 home run that completely cleared the left field pavilion and the 2022 All-Star Game, in which he homered and earned All-Star honors. Most Valuable Player.
Now, after two more rounds of postseason excellence from Stanton helped the Yankees get to this point, the stage is set for him to further cement his October legacy, starting Friday in Los Angeles.