TAMPA – As the 2023 season came to a close, Giancarlo Stanton said he would only take a few days off before getting to work.
The slugger, coming off the worst year of his career, said that the offseason would entail both “minor” adjustments and “a lot of changes.”
“Not much more to touch on that,” Stanton, who hit .191/.275/.420 with 24 home runs and 60 RBI in 2023, said at the time. “But there’ll be a lot in the lab in the offseason.”
On Monday, the Yankees got their first in-person look at what that figurative lab produced as position players reported to camp: a noticeably leaner Stanton who is ready to put last year behind him.
The muscle is still there, but Stanton is clearly among the Yankees who have slimmed down. He said didn’t know how much weight he lost over his “first whole healthy offseason in a long time,” but he added more movement-based exercises and running to his routine, which still includes “plenty of time in the weight room.”
Stanton’s hope is that the changes will allow him to “be a baseball player again” after his lack of mobility hurt the Yankees on multiple occasions last year. A hamstring strain, the latest in a long line of lower-body injuries, limited him to 101 games in 2023.
“I just needed to be more mobile. A lot of setbacks kept me not moving the way I’d like to be,” said the 34-year-old Stanton, who added that the Yankees had mutual interest in his transformation. “I gotta stay on the field. The start-stopping is not ideal and it hasn’t been. I’m here to play, not be on the sidelines, so that’s never ideal.”
Added Aaron Boone: “It’s one thing to be light. It’s another thing to kind of go through our assessments and make sure you’re moving properly and you’re able to do certain things strength and flexibility and running-wise, so I feel like he’s in a really good spot.
“I think this is kind of where he should be playing at this point in his career.”
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— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 19, 2024
Stanton also said that there will be changes to his swing, though he didn’t elaborate. The former MVP has produced a .202/.286/.442 slash line and league-average 100 OPS+ since the start of the 2022 season, and fastballs have been an issue for him over that span.
Asked if he feels people have written him off, Stanton replied, “I don’t care.” He added that, “I don’t do noise,” when asked if he feels motivation when people say the Yankees should move on from him and his exorbitant contract.
“You’ve got to change the narrative,” said Stanton, who has a full no-trade clause and is owed $98 million over the next four years.
Stanton also said that, after his Monday scrum with reporters, he doesn’t want to look back at 2023 moving forward.
“Flushing that down the toilet wasn’t hard at all,” Stanton said.
“I’m not worried about none of that. It’s not an ego or confidence rebuild. It’s is a big stack of things that weren’t aligned. This is a new year. After this, I’m not really talking about last year too much.”
While Stanton is trying to look ahead, he also answered questions about Brian Cashman’s comments over the offseason.
Back in November, the general manager voluntarily brought up Stanton’s knack for getting hurt while discussing Eric Cressey and the Yankees’ injury woes.
“We try to limit the time he’s down,” Cashman said at the GM Meetings in Arizona. “But I’m not gonna tell you he’s gonna play every game next year because he’s not. He’s going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game. But I know that when he’s right and healthy – other than this past year – the guy’s a great hitter and has been for a long time.”
The “it seems to be part of his game” portion sparked a critical statement from Stanton’s agent, Joel Wolfe. A few days later, Cashman said that he cleared the air with Stanton and Wolfe and that the three were “in a good spot.”
On Monday, Stanton succinctly said that Cashman “knows my reaction to that,” when asked about the GM’s comments. However, Stanton said the two have communicated since then and that he’s okay with Cashman.
The Yankees, meanwhile, will be more than okay if Stanton can at least partially return to form at the plate. With Aaron Judge and Juan Soto already forming a deadly duo, a revitalized Stanton could make for a terrifying trio.
But Stanton noted that the Yankees have “a lot of flexibility” after adding Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham to their outfield mix/lineup options. If Stanton doesn’t post the way the Yankees need him to, they have other options.
“If you don’t produce, there’s going to be adjustments and ways to make the lineup as optimal as possible,” he acknowledged. “So it’s my job to do that.”
Speaking of flexibility and maximizing the lineup, the Yankees have said that they want Stanton to be an occasional – and quality – option in the outfield.
They’ve said similar things in the past, only to yield limited and poor defensive play. But perhaps Stanton’s reshaped body will allow him to be more consistent in the outfield.
“Whenever I’m needed, I’d like to be in the outfield. A good amount,” Stanton said. “I know guys have to rotate in at DH. Judgey will have to get in there, and I think we’ll have a good rotation of the DH. So yeah, I look forward to playing the outfield.”
