Standing at his locker at Petco Park, Giancarlo Stanton apologized during the Yankees’ recent trip to San Diego.
About four minutes into an interview regarding changes he’s made, the designated hitter had not provided many of the details that strong stories thrive on. Stanton was well aware of that, though not necessarily intentional about the lack of information.
“I’m sorry,” the reserved star told the Daily News. “I don’t have any of those.
“You can’t go in there and watch me do it. I can’t really explain it. Just ways to keep me activated and prepared differently. Obviously, I’ve always looked for that. But you gotta alter things as some things don’t work.”
Stanton, in vague terms, was referring to offseason adjustments to his training program and swing. He discussed those tweaks in a similar manner back in spring training, when he reported to camp in significantly leaner shape in an effort to “be a baseball player again” after lower-body injuries contributed to two substandard seasons.
“Just more running than in years past,” Stanton said at the time when asked to elaborate on a winter routine that included more movement. As for his swing, he simply said there would be modifications, though his cut has looked fairly comparable to years past.
In San Diego, Stanton said that there aren’t any obvious mechanical differences in his swing. Instead, it’s more about being “grounded” in the batter’s box.
“There’s not much details to it,” the 34-year-old said. “There’s no night and day arms here, legs here, blah, blah. It’s just staying in your screw into the ground to generate force.”
Stanton said that he needed to redevelop his muscle memory at the plate, as he had trouble staying “in my legs” after suffering a hamstring strain in April 2023 and a calf strain and Achilles tendonitis in 2022. The 2017 National League MVP hit .202/.286/.442 with 55 home runs, 138 RBI and a league-average 100 OPS+ over those two seasons while playing in 211 games.
Stanton was especially bad last year, hitting .191/.275/.420 with an 87 OPS+.
After two poor, injury-riddled campaigns, Brian Cashman then said that he expected Stanton to get hurt again while discussing Eric Cressey and the Yankees’ injury woes at the GM Meetings in November. Those comments didn’t sit well with Stanton and his agent, and Cashman ultimately had to clear the air.
More recently, Aaron Boone said that Stanton wasn’t completely healthy, even when he was on the field, last year. Stanton, however, dismissed that defense.
“If I was out there, there’s no excuses,” he said.
Fast forward to June, and Stanton has yet to miss time with an injury this season. He’s also been productive at the plate, drilling 15 homers while adding 34 RBI and a 116 OPS+ while mostly hitting fourth and fifth.
“Big G has been a threat in the middle all year,” Boone said after Stanton crushed a 110.4-mph, 420-foot, two-run homer to Yankee Stadium’s second deck in Tuesday’s win over the Twins. “He’s been a threat every day. You can feel that, and you can feel the other team knows where he is.”
While some parts of Stanton’s game are still lacking — he was hitting .232 with a .281 OBP and a 30.9 K% as of Wednesday morning — he has given the Yankees a legitimate Big 3 alongside Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
With Judge at 21 homers and Soto at 17, three Yankees teammates each had at least 15 dingers through the team’s first 62 games for the first time in franchise history.
“You never get used to these guys,” said Soto, the newest member of the trio. “It’s just amazing. Him and Judge, every time they hit a homer, it’s 110 mph and over. It’s just impressive how hard they can hit the ball. I’ve just been enjoying that for a little bit. It’s been great.”
Added Stanton: “It’s unreal. We’re all clicking on all cylinders, and we don’t even have to click on all cylinders. It doesn’t have to be the same person every night. It’s really just putting pressure on every pitcher we face. Sooner or later, we’re gonna crack ’em.”
With three sluggers leading the way, Boone said the Yankees’ offense, which leads the majors in homers, wOBA and fWAR, has had a “relentless nature” to it.
As far as his contributions are concerned, Stanton credits his new routine. While he wouldn’t dive into specifics, he said his daily warmup regiment is 40% different from last year.
As a DH — he’s yet to play the field this season despite the Yankees’ typical insistence that he would — Stanton feels the changes have kept him ready to move after hours on the bench. He’s no longer afraid to push himself running, though he’s still among the league’s slowest players.
Asked if it was hard to switch things up after 14 largely successful seasons, Stanton acknowledged “it was time for an adjustment.” He knew what he was doing wasn’t yielding desirable health or results, and so a revamp didn’t require much convincing.
“It would have been hard if things were going good and someone was like, ‘Hey, I think you should do this,’” Stanton said. “But when you’re not feeling good and not recovering and staying the way you should, I’m all for it.”
After 54 games and roughly two months into the season, Stanton has to be feeling good. Not only physically, but with regards to his results.
He’s no longer an MVP contender, but he’s looked a lot closer to the player the Yankees expect him to be.
With that said, there’s still a lot of baseball left to play. Stanton knows there’s more work to be done if he truly wants to prove that he’s back to being a formidable force.
“You don’t prove nothing in a two-month stretch,” he said. “You got a whole season. The grind days aren’t even here yet. So just keep the course.”
