Never more valuable.
Never less dispensable.
If these two descriptions do not always go hand in hand, surely they do when it comes to Giancarlo Stanton and his robust 2021.
Remember when Stanton seemed an intractable, inflexible, intraditable entity, an albatross around the Yankees ’payroll for the foreseeable future? Well, if this 31-year-old hasn’t done anything else this year, he’s sure to have increased his appeal to other clubs. Not only is he beating baseball, bringing a .267 / .368 / .476 lineup to Tuesday night’s game against the Braves at Truist Park, but he’s doing it en masse, his 104 games and 435 beach appearances easily exceed 41 and 166 added in 2019 and 2020 together. Just in the last month, moreover, he returned to the field of play after not having played since September 2019; Tuesday night marked his twelfth field start in 25 games.
For starters, Stanton has done something else this season: combining his success, relative good health, and improved versatility with what has happened anywhere else on the Yankees list, and it becomes harder to predict a Stanton trade. out of season, which would only occur with his a blessing, thanks to his protection without trade, to be clear, as just a leak. The $ 159 million exit that corresponded to him until 2027 (and probably no team would take on the entire bill) would lead to additional pain in salary relief.
“When he’s doing well, he’s obviously a guy who changes the game all the time,” Aaron Boone said of Stanton on Tuesday. “Time [we] I just want to keep making sure he’s in this good place as much as we can to help him do it, and we’ve seen him by stretches; obviously we saw him in the playoffs, everyone jumped on his back and led us through it all. I just want to make sure I stay in a good place and we continue to get those good results. “
Now, let’s call a timeout to make sure we don’t forget the room elephant – even this season, generally healthy (lost 14 days with a left quad injury in May) and brought a 131 OPS + to work on Tuesday as he had arrived base in 20 straight games, Stanton is crazy. He posted a terrible .214 / .320 / .333 bar line in the July 23 games and had another half month (from his return on May 28 from the injured list to June 15) with a .186 / .286 / .419 line. This comes with territory for a 6 foot and 6 foot boy with fun mechanics.
“One of the reasons he’s able to hit the ball as hard as it is because it’s so big and so strong and his levers and if he gets everything working properly, they’re important assets,” Boone said. “But it’s also why you’ve seen people over the years that it can sometimes be harder for older people to be really consistent. Because there are more moving parts to get into [a] strong position. So, I’m sure, it’s something that older guys have to constantly deal with. Advantages, there [are] a lot, but there [are] also challenges “.
The most perfect daily player of the 2021 Yankees is probably Aaron Judge … and he can be a free agent after next year, as can his teammate, newcomer Joey Gallo. It looks like Brett Gardner will retire after the season and youngsters Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier have recorded disastrous campaigns. Meanwhile, on the designated batting side, Luke Voit has reminded us how dangerous he can be … and the one prone to injury as well.
Perhaps by the end of the season, the variables will have changed drastically once again. However, even holding this discussion in late August is a hassle. Who imagined Stanton would be so good, so upright (props Yankees players health and performance director Eric Cressey to keep both Stanton and Judge active), so vital? It’s a devilish development in the midst of a dizzying striped season.