TAMPA – The Yankees may start the season without their designated hitter.
Giancarlo Stanton acknowledged that he is “definitely behind” schedule, as he is dealing with two tennis elbows. While he noted that he has several weeks to catch up this spring, he isn’t sure if he’ll be ready for Opening Day on March 27.
“We’ll see how that goes,” he said before the Yankees’ first full-squad workout on Monday morning.
Aaron Boone shared Stanton’s injuries on Sunday. He was also non-committal about Opening Day.
“I don’t know,” the manager said. “We’ll see. Tough to say. I’m not going to put any timeline on it. We’re just going to be smart with it and kind of listen to it.”
Boone said that Stanton played with bad elbows late last season and throughout an explosive postseason. Stanton said that he was dealing with at least one bad elbow for most of last year.
“Just gonna give as much time as possible before we gotta get rolling for a full year here,” Stanton said. “Definitely not just soreness. It’s a manageable thing. That’s how last year [went] and this year will go.”
Asked if his elbows got worse during the offseason, Stanton replied, “The pain was very high in general.” While he declined to say exactly when or how the issues first flared up, the two elbows began hurting about two months apart.
“Tennis elbow, or however they call it, is tears in your tendon. So it’s not, ‘When did it feel good? When did it feel bad?’ There’s always a pain level there. You gotta deal with that. This is the wisest point to give time right now.”
Stanton added “absolutely not” when asked if he ever considered sitting during an October run that saw him total seven home runs, 16 RBI, a 1.048 OPS and an ALCS MVP trophy.
Stanton, who slashed .233/.298/.475 with 27 homers and 72 RBI during a bounce-back 2024 season, has not swung a bat in 3-4 weeks. He’s been doing a lot of forearm and tissue treatment, as well as general exercise.
At this point, surgery is not a concern for the slugger.
“If you blow it up, which overdoing it would,” Stanton said when asked if his elbows could require a procedure. “Obviously not what you want. That would be the same if anything were to tear off, but that’s not a worry.”
With Juan Soto no longer in the lineup and the Yankees hoping other former MVPs Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt can turn back the clock, Stanton’s health is vital. Losing his right-handed swing for an extended period would take serious slug out of the order. It would also hurt the group’s balance after the Yankees got a little more left-handed over the winter.
But Stanton has a long injury history, mostly thanks to his lower body. He missed a little over a month with a hamstring strain last year and has also suffered Achilles, calf, quad and knee injuries since joining the Yankees before the 2018 season, which prompted him to revamp his offseason routine and body two winters ago.
“He missed the one month [in 2024], but in and around that, the other five months, he was such a presence, whether it was in that four-hole or five-hole, night in and night out,” Boone said. “He was a threat all the time. And in a lot of ways, it was probably his most consistent year in the last few and relatively steady health. He’s huge for us, especially [now] that [we’re] a little more left-handed.”
It’s unclear how the Yankees would use the DH spot if Stanton lands on the injured list. Players like Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt could rotate there, creating more opportunities for a younger player like Ben Rice or a backup like Trent Grisham, who is working his way back from a hamstring injury.
One possible silver lining: Stanton has gone on short rehab assignments when he’s gotten hurt in the past. It may not take him that long to ramp up. It’s just a matter of when he starts that process.
“This is just a time to get as much time as I can,” Stanton said. “The idea is not to take down time. So this is the smartest time during a shorter offseason window to be able to do that.”