Erik Boland: Once again, Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton must deal with an injury
Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton rounds the bases after his home run against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Tuesday in Boston, Mass. Credit: Getty Images/Winslow Townson
HOUSTON — Giancarlo Stanton stood in front of his locker in Daikin Park’s visiting clubhouse late Saturday afternoon addressing his least favorite topic.
Pretty much every player’s least favorite, actually.
Players will tell you they would, by a long shot, rather talk about an 0-for-20 slump, or a rough stretch on the mound in the case of pitchers, than injuries.
At least, they say, you feel some degree of control when it comes to a poor stretch on the field.
Injuries? That’s not the case.
And Stanton, much to his consternation and frustration over the majority of his time with the Yankees, has gotten used to the latter.
So there was the 36-year-old DH on Saturday talking about another injury, the severity of which isn’t yet clear.
But Stanton, who left Friday’s 12-4 victory over the Astros with tightness in his right calf, is prepared for, while maybe not the worst, news that he again will be headed to the injured list.
His history has taught him that he should be prepared, even if, as of Saturday, that determination had not been made.
“Feel better than yesterday,” Stanton said before Saturday night’s game. “I’m going to try to [see] tomorrow to see where we’re at and decide what to do.”
Is he concerned it could be an IL situation?
“We’re going to wait and see,” Stanton, hitting .256 with three homers and a .724 OPS this season, said.
Manager Aaron Boone, also speaking before the game, did not dismiss the IL as a possibility.
“It could be,” Boone said. “But we’ll see. We’re going to give it the day and kind of see how treatments go and stuff. I do think he got it in time to not, hopefully, do something serious to it. Whether that turns into a day-to-day situation or if it turns into a short IL, we’ll see. We’ll let the next several hours play out and see where we’re at.”
Stanton, who as of Saturday night had not undergone any testing, said he first felt discomfort making his way to second base in the sixth inning Friday night after Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a walk (Stanton reached first by singling in Ben Rice, who led off the inning with a double).
“Felt fine at first and then…I didn’t just walk to second, I gave it a little jog, and it felt weird,” Stanton said. “And then my secondary (lead) at second, it kept feeling weird.”
Did it feel “weird” as he stood talking to the media Saturday?
Stanton gave a half-hearted smile that belied something other than humor.
“We’re going to wait to see what’s going on,” he said. “And if it’s not perfect…it obviously is not ideal. That doesn’t mean great or terrible.”
It has been largely forgotten just how durable a player Stanton, who played eight seasons with the Marlins before getting dealt to the Yankees before the 2018 season, mostly was the first part of his career.
He played in 159 games, for instance, during his 2017 NL MVP season and followed that by appearing in 158 games in his first season in pinstripes.
But each successive season has brought at least one IL stint, a streak Stanton desperately would like to break this year.
Even if he practically cringed when asked how “disappointed” he was with having to potentially deal with something that could result in a trip to the IL.
“None of that matters, really,” Stanton said. “It’s just [figuring out] what’s the deal with me and then decide what’s best for the team.”
That should not be read as a player dismissive, or uncaring, about his circumstance.
Stanton is admired in the Yankees clubhouse at the same sky-high level captain Aaron Judge is, his work ethic and commitment to being a good teammate, as well as commitment to being on the field, among the many reasons why.
“I cannot stand this,” Stanton said last May while he was on the IL with tennis elbow in both elbows, an affliction that cost him the first 2 ½ months of 2025.
He said that during an extended interview with Newsday on the topic of his many IL stints, giving extra emphasis to the word “cannot.”
“It’s the absolute worst,” Stanton continued then. “And I’ve had to do it many times, unfortunately.”
Hence, his “none of that matters” comment Friday in terms of his personal disappointment level, something else he addressed last May.
“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 said. “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 found himself Saturday in familiar territory – hoping, maybe against all hope, he hadn’t yet again been dealt a bad hand.
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.
