Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton 'cannot stand' being unable to contribute, but he does what he can

BOSTON — Giancarlo Stanton knows that nobody wants to hear it. Not from a professional athlete. Certainly not from one due to make $32 million this season as part of a 13-year, $325 million contract.

When tendon tears in both elbows  cost him all of spring training and prevented him from playing a regular-season game thus far, he never saw the point in lamenting tough breaks or bad luck.

“They see the number we’re getting paid and we’re not out there and don’t care [how we feel about it],” Stanton said. “Understandably.”

Stanton, 35, slated to return soon from the injured list, doesn’t see the point in publicly describing — or even privately to his teammates, for that matter — the emotions that  stem from the kind of lengthy IL stints that have become all too common in his career.

“At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to be on the field. It’s pretty black and white in those terms,” Stanton recently told Newsday. “You can’t go on [talking about] ‘misfortune’ or any of the ‘blah, blah, poor me' stuff. It is what it is, and you just do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt and go from there.”

Stanton’s world is black and white when it comes to baseball and performance.

You get a hit or you don’t. You win the game or you don’t. You’re on the field or you’re not.

The latter has been the case in 2025 for Stanton, who showed up on the first day of spring training having not swung a bat in roughly three weeks, shutting himself down because of the lingering condition in his elbows that he spent much of the second half of last season managing. And while he refused to go down the woe-is-me road, during an extended interview, Stanton did emote just a bit when it comes to being out of uniform.

“I cannot stand this,” he said quietly, with particular emphasis on “cannot.” “It’s the absolute worst. And I’ve had to do it many times, unfortunately.”

The 6-6, 245-pound Stanton — whose lean, chiseled body and the inherent work involved in maintaining it inspire awe in teammates — then cocked an eyebrow (picture Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson).

“Don’t make this some kind of sob story now,” he added with a wry smile.

Players engaged in a long-term rehab process regularly speak of it in unflattering terms — monotony, drudgery, dull, repetitious.

But Stanton, who spent two weeks in steamy Tampa at the club’s minor-league complex taking live at-bats before starting a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset this past week, doesn’t allow for that, either.

“If the cards you’re dealt is to take three swings today, then progress to five the next, whatever it is, then that’s what you have to do that day,” said Stanton, a relatively durable player during the first eight seasons of his career with the Marlins who played in 158 games in his debut season with the Yankees in 2018. However, he has had at least one IL stint each year for the past seven seasons. Since the beginning of 2019, he has played in 505 of a possible 776 regular-season games (65%).

He added, “It’s hard some days for how repetitive it is for sure. You figure out a way to get it done.”

The approach and daily motivation in his rehab, he said, is the same as game preparation. Win.

“If you need to be motivated, this ain’t the line of work for you,” Stanton said with a shrug.

REVERED IN THE CLUBHOUSE

The Yankees’ clubhouse is unmistakably Aaron Judge’s, the case years before managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner designated him captain after he signed a nine-year, $365 million free-agent deal before the 2023 season. But conversations around that clubhouse, including with Judge, yield something else unmistakable: Stanton is as admired and revered as the captain.

“He leads by example,” Judge said. “The respect he’s earned in this room, how he treats everyone, he doesn’t have to say much.”

Judge recalled his first spring training with Stanton in 2018. Judge was coming off a 52-homer season in 2017 that earned him American League Rookie of the Year honors; Stanton, acquired by the Yankees that offseason, hit 59 homers with the Marlins and was named the 2017 National League MVP.

“The cool thing for me was seeing how much he worked; how hard he was working coming off an MVP season. He was working harder than anybody,” Judge said. “He was the first guy at the ballpark and the last to leave. Couldn’t beat him to the ballpark . . . So it was cool for me to see going into my second year, like ‘OK, this guy is at the top. He wants to make the most of it [to stay there].’ ”

Judge, whose daily work ethic is among the many reasons he has the standing in the clubhouse that he does, paused.

“I know my career would be a lot different if I didn’t have him, that’s for sure,” he said. “He’s taught me a lot about hitting, taught me a lot about how to prepare.”

That the 6-7, 282-pound Judge and Stanton have become close over the years was almost to be expected. It's not just because of their massive physiques, bodies that not only make them two-of-two in baseball but would make them stand out in the average NFL locker room.

Both hit prodigious, exit velocity-heavy home runs. Both are MVP winners, multiple-time All-Stars and Home Run Derby champions. Both are among the highest-paid players in sports. Both California natives are superstars who struggle going out in public because they’re so easily recognized. Both are fiercely protective of their privacy.

It's no surprise at all that they bonded.

But less expected is hearing third-year shortstop Anthony Volpe say of Stanton: “I consider him one of my best friends on the team.”

The 24-year-old Volpe added: “I feel like he’s someone I could go to about anything. Obviously, with baseball he’s the first person I’m going to. Whether it’s about recovery, working out, getting in the training room, what he likes, what he doesn’t like . . . The outside perception is he’s really quiet, but he really is a serious, serious leader on the team.”

With, teammates say, one of the highest baseball IQs in the clubhouse.

“That’s probably a very underrated element of his game, the way he thinks through things,” said Ben Rice, 25, who made his big-league debut last season and who has mostly excelled in Stanton’s DH role this season. “I love talking to him about hitting, just the little nuances of at-bats, things you can take in your approach, game-planning. He’s been like that ever since I came up.”

STILL CONTRIBUTING

Before heading to Tampa for live at-bats, Stanton was a fixture in the Yankees' dugout, in uniform, during home games. A common sight during many of those games was that of rookie righthander Will Warren, trying to make his way in the big leagues as a starter this season, planted next to Stanton on the top step of the dugout on his non-pitching days.

“Every now and then we’ll play a game where we try to guess what the [opposing] pitcher’s about to throw,” said Warren, 25. “He’s really accurate. You’re playing count leverage: ‘He’s probably going with splitter at some point’ or ‘look fastball here’ or ‘he’s going off-speed’ for this reason or that. It’s good information every time we talk about stuff. How many years has he played? He’s just seen everything. To pick his brain a little bit is always going to help.”

To answer Warren’s question, this marks Stanton’s 16th year in the big leagues. He is the sport’s active home run leader with 429. That number, which he figures to build on, and his consistency as a postseason performer since joining the Yankees — seven homers and 16 RBIs in 14 games last year; 18 homers and 40 RBIs in 41 games overall — make him someone who will get serious consideration for enshrinement in Cooperstown upon retirement.

Stanton, signed through 2027 with a club option for 2028 that, realistically, will not be exercised, has no idea how much longer he will play. But he knows his yesterdays in the game far outnumber his tomorrows.

“My window to play is not forever,” he said. “I’m here to contribute and I put the hours in to contribute. Your job’s not being done, at the end of the day. You’re still showing up to your job, but it’s not being done . . . Yeah, [it kills you] being out. You don’t play the game forever. When you have an opportunity to, and you have to sit and watch . . .  Anyone with any type of competitiveness or want or drive would hate it as well.”

Teammates laud Stanton’s contributions while rehabbing — including attending and actively participating in the daily hitters’ meetings and staying well after the games are over to talk baseball — which he appreciates.

But, personally, those rewards don’t compare to the ones that can only be reaped from playing.

And not because Stanton is a jock terrified of life outside the lines.

He is a player who has traveled the globe, including offseason jaunts to, among other nations, Dubai, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and famously Egypt, where in November 2016 he posted on Instagram a picture of him sitting sleeveless atop a camel in front of the Great Pyramids of Ginza. Stanton has walked the streets in those places in blissful anonymity (mostly), striking up conversations with locals — asking about their daily lives, businesses, culture, etc.

He likes documentaries, the topics ranging from history to nature to travel to fashion (he has attended New York Fashion Week).

No, when done with baseball, or when baseball is done with him, life for Stanton will not be lacking in meaning.

But in the here and now, the singular focus is keeping that “window to play” open as long as possible in pursuit of his one consuming goal: winning a World Series.

And it’s still black and white.

Are you doing your job or not?

Being a supportive and involved teammate is, he said, “the best” he can currently do.

But that isn’t the job.

“Am I doing my job now? No, I’m not. That’s the mindset,” Stanton said. “I cannot stand doing this, but at the same time, I have to bring good energy every day. I can’t bring negativity or bring anyone down around me. You make it seem to everyone as if all is good. It’s not. All is good when I’m out there playing the game.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.