The Yankees officially announced that Giancarlo Stanton won’t be available for the start of the season, as the slugger will be placed on the injured list due to his recurring elbow issues. Stanton received PRP injections in both elbows, and is expected to return to the team’s spring camp later this week after dealing with an unspecified personal matter in New York.
The announcement doesn’t come as any surprise, as Stanton hasn’t swung a bat in five or six weeks due to continued soreness in his elbows. Two weeks ago, Stanton and manager Aaron Boone described the problem as similar to tennis elbow, with Stanton noting that some tendon damage had taken place. While surgery wasn’t being considered, surgery would naturally become an option (or inevitable) in the event of an actual tendon tear, which is why Stanton said he and the team were being cautious in their approach to the injuries.
No timetable was announced for Stanton’s recovery, but probably the end of April would represent a best-case scenario for the five-time All-Star to make his 2025 debut. Some time will be needed to evaluate Stanton’s elbows in the aftermath of the PRP treatment, and if all is well, he’d then need to start his usual ramp-up proceedings after missing so much of both Spring Training and even his pre-camp offseason work. Given Stanton’s long history of leg-related injuries, he’ll need some prep time beyond just hitting work, even if he is going to be a DH-only player this season.
Injuries have long hampered Stanton’s career, and kept from fully delivering on the whopping 13-year, $325MM contract he signed with the Marlins back in November 2014. There is still $96MM owed to Stanton in the final three guaranteed years of that deal, counting the $10MM, though the Yankees are only responsible for covering $66MM of that figure as per the terms of the trade that brought Stanton from Miami to New York in December 2017.
Stanton has been pretty productive (.241/.323/.483 with 162 home runs in 2776 plate appearances) during his time in the pinstripes, and has still looked like one of baseball’s most dangerous hitters from time to time. However, those red-hot streaks have been countered by both extended slumps, and several times when Stanton has simply been unable to play due to injury.
The 2024 season saw Stanton miss about five weeks due to a hamstring strain, though he bounced back reasonably well from a down year in 2023. Stanton hit .233/.298/.475 with 27 home runs in 459 PA last season, which translated to a 116 wRC+ even if low average and on-base numbers continue to be a concern. The slugger then elevated his game in October, hitting .273/.339/.709 with seven homers over 62 PA during New York’s playoff run, and he captured ALCS MVP honors for his huge performance in the Yankees’ five-game elimination of the Guardians.
Following up that great postseason with yet another significant injury is undoubtedly a huge frustration for Stanton as he enters his 16th Major League campaign (and his age-35 season). The fact that these elbow problems are an entirely new injury for Stanton could be viewed in one of two ways — either as a positive that he isn’t again dealing with leg problems, or as a negative that Stanton is now dealing with elbow issues on top of the ever-present concern over his lower body.
With Stanton out, the Yankees might just opt to fill the designated hitter spot with a rotation of players, in order to spread around at-bats and partial rest days for other veterans like Aaron Judge, Paul Goldschmidt, or DJ LeMahieu. In terms of overall roster construction, Ben Rice now looks to have a better chance of making the Opening Day roster, and picking up some DH at-bats himself.
An external addition also can’t be ruled out, if Stanton is facing an extended amount of time on the IL. Reports have already indicated the Yankees have been in touch with J.D. Martinez, perhaps laying some groundwork for a future contract in case Stanton isn’t making much progress in a couple of weeks’ time. Adding a prominent veteran like Martinez, however, would also threaten to push the Yankees’ even further over the top luxury tax tire — RosterResource projects New York’s tax number at roughly $305.1MM, and beyond the upper penalty threshold of $301MM.
Shocker
As is, to be expected.
###Incoming friend request from Anthony Rendon###
Like Madrigal, Stanton is playing his favorite position again. IL.
Honestly, the only Stanton article should be, “Stanton to play a game today”
Was literally going to post the same comment..lol
Blessing in disguise.
Hello darkness, my old friend….
How about this song: “See you / in September / See you / when the summer’s through”
In all seriousness I hope the personal issue that made him fly to NYC isn’t something very severe/tragic.
“Bad news on the doorstep / He couldn’t take one more step…”
As long as Stanton gets into 110 games or so and is ready for the playoffs, that’s a win for the Yankees.
With actual tears in both elbows, I’d be surprised to see him playing before the all star break.
It’s been described as “tennis elbow“ which is a tendinopathy – a dysfunctional healing response of the tendon, in which the cellular elements of tendons proliferate haphazardly, rather than being organized along the lines of force that pass through the tendon. Generally associated with overuse, but not always.
Tendons have a low metabolic rate and a high anaerobic capacity – key features for sustaining tension repeatedly or over long periods, reducing the risk of failure due to lack of oxygen. However, this low metabolic rate results in slow healing after injury.
It’s not unreasonable to expect him back in 4-8 weeks from the start of the right rehab, which I assume has already started.
You haven’t examined him or reviewed his MRI so stop blowing hot air…
A little info about a common baseball injury identified in the article is hot air? Go back to bed man. Tomorrow’s another day.
He’s better off sitting 2025 out. Fix himself up and heal.
lol
I’ll sell ocean front property in north Dakota before that happens
Phew was concerned the apocalypse was underway.
Well, if you haven’t noticed, it actually is underway.
It’s a chance. Very upsetting.
Glass Joe
His contract and DJLs contract are killing the Yankees, especially if they are now counting every penny. He’s better off on the IL because, hopefully, one of the kids can step up now.
Who Spencer Jones? Maybe in the summer or next season hopefully.
@mlb
Absolutely killing them. So much that they have Judge $360 mil, offered Soto $750 mil and then went out and added near $300 mil with of contracts. Please stop the lunacy.Not wanting to go over the harshest lux tax has more to do with just 2025 lux tax. It also has to do with my wanting to lose more picks for 2026 draft and wanting to have some room for a 2026 FA class that gives them a shot at Tucker, Vlad and Arrraez. Yankee fans need to have more sense. I could careless what the valuation of the team is. That money is realized until the team is sold and I feel like the Yanks likely reinvested more revenue money back into the roster than most teams. I trust they’ll figure it out. Trades can plug holes during the season.
I get more of a Soda Popinsky vibe
Yankees just need him for the playoffs, anyway. That’s when he shows up. No point wasting his energy in the meaningless season against junk teams like the Astros, Mets and Angels.
Kinda funny you say that as they split with the absolute mess of the angels and didnt win 1 against the mets last season. Also if i recall didnt the mets blow them out in most of those games?
if you are getting beat by “junk” teams what does that make them?
@Flyby
Were they not in the WS last year? Are you worried about them splitting a regular season series with the Angels? You know who else split with the Angels last year? The Dodgers. You know who was 1-4 vs the Cubs? The Dodgers. Yeesh you ppl.
$32M for Stanton in ’25, $19M next year, $15M year after and then a club option for 2028 @ $15M.
Looking good.
@Piazza
And your point? I wasn’t a fan of the year to begin with, but obviously, it hasn’t prevented them from spending on others.
@knicks
hmm maybe read the entire thread…
“No point wasting his energy in the meaningless season against junk teams like the Astros, Mets and Angels.”
your right they were in the world series and only managed 1 win where the mets won 2 games against them. sounds like your saying if they switched leagues the mets would have been in the world series?
Stanton is
32 29 26 then club for 25 with a 10M buyout with marlins paying 3M each year minus the option / buyout
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/yankees
@Fly
You win something for getting knocked out of the playoffs by the team that actually went to the WS?
[Intro: Chris Brown]
I don’t see how you can hate from outside of the club
You can’t even get in
Hahaha
@Fly
Incorrect. Check BR or Cots. Marlins pay $10 mil each year from 26, 27, and 28. In 28 is a team option for $25 mil or a $10 mil buyout. So Yanks can walk away and be done with Stanton at the end of 2027. They owe 3/$67 right now.
the yankees didnt win anything either as far as i can see or did they just choke because they also got bounced and pretty much embarrassed by the b team of dodger starters except for yamamoto. The dodgers scored in one game almost as much as the yankees entire team for the series with the yankee “potent lineup.”
heck any one can sneak into a club go through the back door and that exactly what they did get in from their back door.
maybe reggie miller was in the club and scared off the yankee bats
@Flyby
Winning your division with 95 wins is in no way, shape or form, “coming in thru the back door.” I would never disrespect any team that made it into the playoffs, but coming from a Mets fan, a team that won 89 games and was 3rd in their own division, I find that funny.
The Yankees made the WS by default. Their wasn’t 1 really good team in the A.L. last year somebody had to go.. the truth!
Old York:They were indeed in the World Series. And lost. When was their last appearance before then. It’s just me I’m sure but it seems arrogant to automatically put the Yankees into this year’s coming playoffs. Nothing is a given this early. This time of year is when I say hopefully my team makes the playoffs.
We ain’t the Dodgers, so forget about that. Everybody knows that the 2024 Yankees were the worst Yankee team to ever make the World Series. It’s not happening again this season.
Do you think he will be on the roster the next time the Yankees make the playoffs? How many years are left on his contract?
Yup, he’ll still be on the roster in September.
Hilarious and true.
Double tendinitis? Both elbows? Happening simultaneously? What are the odds? Tendinitis is not usually resolved with surgery. Therapy is the typical recommendation.
Pinstripe version Stanton has never been the catalyst for regular season success.
The man brings his weight lifting focus to playoff baseball though, so he can take the next 7 months if he likes.
“Weight lifting focus to playoff baseball”..A very true point. I’ve seen Reggie Jackie, Henry Aaron and Willie McCovey, but to this day I’ve still not seen anyone who hits the ball as hard as Mike..err, Giancarlo Stanton.
Guess this means DJ and Peraza can both be on the roster and Rice will get more AB’s. Good times.
Dominic Smith, Ben rice
They’re unlikely to waive Peraza or DJ just to add Smith. It would take another injury or DJ being useless for Smith to make the team.
:Peraza is also out of options, thus the Yankees risk losing him on waivers if they outright him.
DJ injured himself today running out a pop-up. Don’t know how bad.
Still enough talent on that team and on the managerial side to overcome the loss. Boone can get them to buy in and play a more situational style of baseball.
Name checks out
Situational style baseball was big back in the early 1900’s, before the lively ball came into being.
Saying situational baseball was only popular in the early 1900’s is wild, it has only fallen out of favor in the last few years.
34 years old, still has three guaranteed years left on his contract. Seems like a lock for 500 HR. Of the guys with 500 or more HR, only PED guys haven’t made it to the HOF. Will he make it in if he reaches 500?
The man can hit, and hit for power, but it could be a slog to the endgame. I don’t know if 500 gets him there–or he gets to 500. I also don’t think he’s getting to 60+ WAR.
I think over 2000 career hits would make it close.
Roidtiz made the HOF with roids so did Bagwell.
500 seems pretty likely to me. Even in 115 games he seems a lock for 25+ HR. His statcast numbers are still insane—he just obliterates the ball.
He hits the ball so hard both elbows are injured. Lol
A slog to 500 similar to Adam Dunn and Dave Kingman.
@El Kabong
Both Dunn and Kingman ended their careers at 17 bWAR. Stanton used to be a pretty good fielder in Miami and has amassed 44.7 thus far. Apples and oranges.
@YankeeBleacherCreature
I was referring to 500 HR as a magic number for HOF enshrinement. As for Stanton’s candidacy, he will probably have to wait quite a while if he gets in. Tony Oliva was a better ballplayer, and it took him 40-plus years.
Nope. He can get a plaque at the Hall of Very Good, but even 500 HR won’t get him into Cooperstown. If Stanton doesn’t have some major health recovery we can’t even be sure he finishes out the three years remaining on the contract. He’s only passed 115 games once going back to 2019 and it appears he’ll struggle to get that many this year before a single pitch is thrown.
@mister
They’ll look at 500, his mvp and his injury history and say “if he was healthy he wouldn’t easily had 600-650 homers. He’ll be elected. He would be the only 500 hr guy not associated with steroids to NOT be in the Hall.
Has to get to 500 first before it’s ever an argument and there’s no guarantee of that
I don’t think Stanton is a lock for anything he is aging and extremely injury prone, 71 HR is a LONG way.
Cor blimey, I’m gobsmacked!
Remember when Cashman caught grief for saying missing time to the IL was just a part of Stanton’s game? Good times.
@Joe says…
Pepperidge Farms remembers…
And the grass is green.
But he has big muscles …
Siri, set reminder to post Stanton IL article in March. Frequency: yearly.
Another player I had faith in to break the all-time strikeout record and another player that let me down.
Calling Stanton “pretty productive in his time in pinstripes” is a misnomer. Stanton has managed to appear in at least 130 games or more twice in 7 seasons in the Bronx and 162 Home Runs over that span averages out to 23 per season, which is not what you have paid $199 million dollars for (so far)
He’s been above average/very good when he has been able to play. I’d take his production over some other big contracts that are looking real bad right now.
Rendon, Story, Pujols, Trout, etc., are/were all worse contracts and have been outperformed by Stanton since he was traded to the Yankees.
I’m not so sure that “There are some worse contracts” is the best argument, especially when one of the people you named (Trout) has since 2019 clearly outperformed Stanton in pretty much every offensive, and of course defensive, category. Better comparisons include Judge, Harper, Machado, Betts, Freeman, Olson, and even Yelich, and Stanton hasn’t “outperformed” any of them.
@Jarred
I can’t agree with calling Stanton “above average”. He does one thing well and that’s hit monster homers but honestly, he doesn’t hit enough to come close to justify his pay or locking up a position for this long. If he could pay a decent OF that would help but he can’t.
A misnomer is usually a single word, not an entire phrase, meaning “miss-named” or “bad name”.
He was pretty productive in Florida Marlin pinstripes
True
And after this article was written, DJ LeMaiheu is now hurt too with a calf injury.
DJ & Stanton are both hurt? That must mean it’s now March.
And of course DJ already tweaked his calf and Boone (the eternal optimist) has termed it “concerning”.
This guy has become the biggest marshmallow in mlb history. Turned to mush after the big contract!
J.D MARTINEXZ WELCOME TO N.Y…
I think all the weight lifting these guys are doing is causing damage because baseball is a sport that requires a lot of quick-twitch, flexibility. When injuries were way down it was prior to all the weights and supplements. Just my two cents.
@rememberthecoop
Agreed. Not just hitters but also pitchers. Unfortunately, it’s been this way since the sport started being marketed as a power game. The late-night highlights packages became a thing of mammoth home runs and nasty whiffs.
I think his extremely violent swing doesn’t help. Could be why his elbows are deteriorating so quickly
Longest contract ever
Talk to Rendon. Stanton’s may be longer, but at least he’s played.
Is this really a story, it happens every year. It’s his back, his hand. his hamstring, his neck, now it his elbows, next will be a hang nail or blister. Stanton is a walking medical issue; I heard that the Yankees may rename the trainer’s room to the Stanton Lounge. He has his own table, tv to watch, fridge, microwave. Face it, Stanton is not worth what he is getting paid, a lot like but worse is the Angels Rendon, he has just phoned it in for the past 3 years, he is the all-time DL. MLB should give out an award for the most time spent on the DL, they can name it the “Rendon”
His neck, his back, …
Juan Soto is the next Stanton, good luck Mets
I don’t think Stanton is a turd of a human being like Soso!
Beware pinheads with millions and millions of guaranteed dollars.
In other important news…..We need air to breathe.
Imagine my shock… /s
Every year I’m reminded how happy I am he vetoed the trade to St. Louis.
This comes has a surprise to…….no one.
It can always get worse.
To visit the MLB Rehab Center, you enter through the Moncada mezzanine and head down Haniger hall to the Stanton suite. You can use the Buxton bathroom at the top of Strasburg stairs. The Tulowitzki TV room is there by the Pedroia patio. You can play ping-pong in the Trout table tennis room.
He’d injure himself again making that walk. Funny as heck though.
He should just hang it up already!
Spring training: pitchers and catchers report and Stanton goes on the IL.
Knock me over with a feather fellas….shocking news,just shocking
It’s time the Yankees move on from Cashman. He gets all the credit for building the late 90s dynasty but that was actually Gene Michael’s team.
The dynasty team was built with homegrown talent (Jeter, Williams, Rivera, Posada) and sneaky good pickups (O’Neil, Martinez, David Cone, Ruben Sierra, the list goes on).
Ever since they signed Giambi their strategy is to build a team by purchasing star players. Which is a lazy and inept way of building any team in any workforce. They have one World Series title in 25 years and we all know the Phillies should’ve won that series in 09’.
The 2025 Yankees are an extremely talented group of players but that’s it. They aren’t a team. The weakest link is their General Manager. Time to move on New York before the Red Sox win another title before you do.
Wasn’t the late 90s Yankees team put together by Bob Watson?
Michael & Watson both, with Cashman pouring the coffee, putting out the donuts.
Biggest mistake the Yankees have made over past few decades is trading for Stanton after missing out on Ohtani the first time and the following season passing on Bryce Harper who when in high school was interviewed by SI and said he would be a Yankee one day. He wanted to be a Yankee and they decided not pursue him because they had Judge and Stanton. Harper is the left handed bat they needed especially now more than ever after watching Soto the mercenary walk which honestly might actually wind up being the biggest positive for the Yankees over the past decade.
@billy
Agreed. From what I was told, Cashman was against the trade but it was done between Randy Levine and Jeter.
Poor Giancarlo he had to carry Aaron Judge throughout the playoffs and obviously injured both elbows. Judge is tall but heavy. You can hardly blame the injury for the overpaid and overrated stiff Judge. He sucks when it matters.
Unfortunately he can’t play outfield so when Judge whiffed on the catch it was lights out for the hapless Yankees.
maybe if he went back to calling himself mike rather than geee.ahn.cahr.lo he wouldn’t be so fra.jee.lee
Who won the pool?
If the Yankees wanted to pay someone to be on the injured list, I would have done it for much cheaper for them…
Stanton’s bobblehead doll comes with a neckbrace
Wait…he was ever off the IL?
One of the worse contracts in MLB history.
People were hyping him up like they hype Soto up these days.
Both highly overrated.
Omg can you believe they hyped up an MVP? Noooo wayyyyy.
Get a load of this guy lmao
Water is wet
Cashman had plenty of chances to sign some very good free agents to strengthen our pitiful bench, but was asleep at the wheel, as usual. Going into the season with DJLM listed as your starting third baseman is flat out embarrassing. I heard she’s already hurt.
As a Cards fan, I sure am glad he vetoed the trade to St Louis.