Giancarlo Stanton Was Not What the Yankees Needed

Last year the Yankees weren’t expected to make the post-season. But they surprised everyone, won the wild card game, beat Cleveland in the Division Series—winning the final three games of the five game battle—and advanced to the American League Championship Series against Houston. They eventually lost in a bruising seven game contest. One bitter game short of the World Series.

So, 2017 became a disappointing year that would have been a success for most teams, but not for the Yankees.

Then again, the Yankees are not most teams. They didn’t win the World Series. So, drastic measures were necessary. But what measures? Then Giancarlo Stanton became available. That qualified as a significant addition.

And even better, Stanton was available on the cheap. The Yankees suddenly had the opportunity to acquire a major star for almost nothing.

But was he the right piece?

The price for the 2017 NL MVP was two (minor) minor leaguers and the contract of Starlin Castro. While Castro was a decent player, he was a free swinger (an anathema to the Yankees, once upon a time), an undisciplined hitter and a careless fielder on the diamond. A temp until someone better, like Gleyber Torres, arrived.

And this year, Gleyber Torres was expected to be promoted. (He was.)

So the Yankees opted for another home run hitter. Why not? Home run hitters are in the Yankees’ DNA. From Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig onward to Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and beyond.

But even those great hitters needed hitters who put the ball in play and reached base. So, they could drive in Earle Combs, Frankie Crosetti, Red Rolfing, Hank Bauer, Phil Rizzutto, Bobby Richardson and Tom Tresh.

One wonders if the Yankees considered adding a younger, high OBP hitter who could set up Aaron Judge and their other power hitters when they came to the plate?

Since Miami was holding a fire sale, why not Christian Yelich? He was a younger, more versatile and better overall player than Stanton. So, how did he escape their radar screen? Besides, Yelich wasn’t signed for the next ten years at $300 million dollars. All the Yankees would’ve had to pay was $49.57 million over seven seasons, plus a team option for the 1922 season, when he would’ve been 31 years old. Granted the cost in prospects would have been pricier, but you have to give to get, and the Yankees’ farm system was and is deep in prospects they could have swapped for the 26-year-old.

Stanton will be 38 when his contract expires in 2027 and even after it’s over there is a 1928 team option. So, there’s quite a difference in financial commitment between the two players.

Compare the chart below. Stanton has the BEST career numbers, but this season, J.D. Martinez, who the Yankees could have signed to a five year deal for a third of the price of Stanton’s contract, is having the best season of the three.

Player	Season	OPS+	OPS	WAR
Giancarlo Stanton	2018	122	.841	3.2
	Career	143	.905	38.4
Christian Yelich	2018	146	.931	5.3
	Career	125	.823	23.9
J.D. Martinez	2018	173	1.034	5.8
	Career	137	.885	19.8

Notice that Yelich’s numbers are excellent—superior to those of Stanton.

So, what were the Yankees thinking?

Admittedly this argument is looking backwards and so suffers from hindsight as does all retrospective thinking, but this writer disliked the Stanton deal from the first moment the Yankees announced it. They had already given pitchers nightmares throughout the prior season walloping rockets and moon-blasts over fences in every stadium in the league. Why the need for more? Lack of power wasn’t why the Houston Astros defeated them in the League Championship Series.

They needed a player who could put the ball in play in key moments rather than swinging for the fences. Or so it seemed. Not Giancarlo Stanton.

Didn’t the Yankees remember the play of one of their best all-around players ever, admittedly not a home run hitter (though he did lead the American League in home runs twice), but a hell of a player nonetheless. A Hall of Famer, a man who won the American League MVP three times, finished second twice, and third once. A pretty good player.

Have you guessed him yet?

Okay, he’s Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio. And just to add to his legend, in only 13 seasons he won nine World Series rings, including four in a row (1936-1939).

DiMaggio was a great hitter, plain and simple. He was not as prolific a hitter as Ted Williams, but Boston did not win one World Series with Williams—and the one World Series they did appear in in 1946, they lost to St. Louis in seven games. Williams hit all of .250 in that Series, failing to dent St. Louis’ innovative defensive machinations.

Giancarlo Stanton is not DiMaggio nor Williams. He’s the epitome of today’s player. An undisciplined hitter who strikes out so much so that his value to the team in critical, clutch moments is less than it should be. He simply does not put the ball in play enough. And against good right-handed pitching—pitchers with solid, sharp curve balls or sliders that break off the plate down and away—Stanton seems helpless more than imposing. Against those right-handers,  Stanton (and Gary Sanchez) offer only minimal resistance with a mediocre .771 OPS. Lots of wild flailing and waving at breaking pitches, and then the long, slow trudge back to the bench. Although, to give Stanton his due, against left-handed pitching he’s King Kong. His numbers are much, much better—a 1.049 OPS. Unfortunately, the Yankees, like every other team, face far more right-handed pitching than left.

Maybe Stanton should just be a platoon player against lefties, and ride the bench against righties. But he’s earning so much money he has to be an everyday player. Right?

And while the Yankees have had a good season, they’re somewhere around ten games behind Boston. This cannot all be blamed on Stanton. He hasn’t pitched the games that Sonny Gray started. But he has not had the season J.D. Martinez is having. Perhaps, if the Yankees had signed Martinez, they’d be ten games ahead now? Conjecture, but interesting.

The big picture is that the Yankees chose more home runs rather than a better all-around player. And they’ve paid the price in dollars and their offense that has looked feeble at times.

Purely impressionistically (if there is such a word?) the Yankees as a team have struck out quite a bit with runners in scoring position. FanGraphs has the Yankees striking out at a rate of 8.72 strikeouts per game, 22nd most in the majors during the 2018 season. So, there is some credence to this idea. Add to it that even though the Yankees are walking at the rate of 3.79 per game, second in the majors during 2018, they’re not moving runners along often enough. The Yankees, in fact, lead the American League in sacrifice flies. This stat is mentioned often on their telecasts, but it’s another way of saying they’re not driving in enough runners with base hits. Like singles. Forget the pressure-packed home run.

Or, maybe they’re hitting in bad luck?

According to FanGraphs, the Yankees have made contact during the 2018 season at a 75.7% clip. This is the 25th best number in the major leagues. It implies the Yankees as a team display great patience at the plate. They wait for their pitch. So, why aren’t they making contact when it counts?

Could it be their big hitters don’t cut down on their swings when it matters, trying for the three-run homer rather than the less impressive “doink” into right-center that drives in two?

In the end, everything is about contracts and big money. “Doinks” don’t pay big. Home runs do. And players playing in New York may be brainwashed into believing if they do it here, they’ll receive a massive contract, even though Giancarlo Stanton earned his in Miami.

But now that they need Giancarlo Stanton, (with Aaron Judge still on the disabled list), the Yankees are seeing their wild card lead evaporate (a 1.5 game lead as of this writing) as the hot breath of the Oakland A’s burns their necks. It seems as though the Yankees will be one of the two wild cards, but now it seems they may be the visiting team if they don’t pick up their pace. They still have six games with Boston and three with Tampa Bay remaining. So, more losses are in the offering. While Oakland is winning every game, or so it seems.

Perhaps a solid contact hitter might have made a difference. A left-handed bat to give the Yankees more balance and speed, especially given the recent inefficiency of Brett Gardner at the plate where he is no longer their sparkplug. If Gardner is a sparkplug, he’s backfired just when the Yankees need him most.

Wouldn’t the Yankees rather have Christian Yelich leading off and playing left field with his .382 OBP and .932 OPS for only $7 million plus per year? And if he had cost the Yankees more in prospects than Stanton, wouldn’t that production still be worth it?

Maybe the Yankees are going to surprise everyone again as the 2018 season comes to a close. Could they be one and done? It’s looking more and more that way unless Stanton recharges his batteries and begins delivering a nightly power surge into the Yankees’ psyche.

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