Yankees reveal restrictions for Giancarlo Stanton, who won’t start season as everyday player
One series into the Yankees’ season, all but one of the regulars started all three games.
The exception was the one player who doesn’t play the field, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton.
Go figure, right?
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No, nothing is wrong. Stanton isn’t hurt again. After playing just 41 of 220 regular-season games from 2019-20 due to injuries, Stanton has been healthy since last October when he Marty McFly’d back to his 59-homer, NL MVP form mashing six homers in seven Yankees playoff games.
Why rest Stanton for Sunday’s game, a 3-1 Yankees loss to the Toronto Blue Jays?
Manager Aaron Boone’s biggest reason for the lineup switch wasn’t giving a first start to Brett Gardner, who played left field with Clint Frazier moving from left to right and Aaron Judge from right to DH.
Stanton also didn’t sit because he was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, a walk and a lot of Yankees fans booing him on Opening Day and then 0-for-2 with two walks on Saturday. Stanton looked good at the plate batting .314 in 13 spring games, then he got on base three times in the first two games despite not getting any hits.
This was just a rest day for a star player with an extensive injury history.
“Obviously when Giancarlo is not in the lineup, it’s going to get your attention,” YES Network analyst John Flaherty said on air. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. You’ve got to get Brett Gardner in the lineup at some point. This was a good day to do that.”
Flaherty’s reaction changed when he heard Boone explaining his decision in a pre-game interview:
“I’m not going to probably play (Stanton) five days in a row. That is kind of what I told him. So I figured this was the best day to do that. Nothing more than that.”
That statement floored Flaherty.
“That got my attention because as a player I would hate to have limitations on how many games I’m going to play,” the one-time Yankees catcher said. “If Giancarlo Stanton is a hot hitter like he was in the postseason last year, you would hate to think that he’s not going to play five in a row when he’s swinging the bat well. I didn’t like that comment from Aaron Boone.”
Fellow YES Network analyst Jack Curry agreed … until getting a clarification that Stanton’s restrictions are temporary.
“I did a little digging,” Curry said during the Yanks’ pre-game show. “That’s to start the season. That is the way that they’re going to go initially, and that makes sense. Stanton coming out of spring training, they want to make sure a player that has had the injury history that he’s had has some built-in days off. But if he gets on a roll, the Yankees are going to want to have him in there.”
Curry believes this is the right way to proceed: Be cautious early in the season, then increase the workload later on if Stanton is still healthy and producing like he can.
“If you’re going to limit a guy to playing only five games (in a row), giving him the sixth day off all the time, you’re already saying you’re about a 130-game-a-year player,” Curry said. “If that person happens to get a nagging injury and goes on the IL, you’re losing them for another 10 or 15 games. Now you’re down to 115 games or so. And this is a marquee player in your lineup. I don’t think you should put limitations on a guy, especially if he gets on a roll.”
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