The Yankees are expected to reinstate Giancarlo Stanton, who has been on the shelf since late July due to tendinitis in his left Achilles, prior to tomorrow’s series opener in Oakland. Stanton was on the field going through a full pre-game routine yesterday, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link with video). The Yankees already announced following last night’s game that outfielder Estevan Florial has been optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which seems to further set the stage for Stanton’s return.
Stanton, 32, has had a productive season at the plate in terms of power output and run production, belting 24 homers and plating 61 runs through just 324 trips to the plate. After an excellent first two months at the plate — Stanton hit .285/.339/.523 through the end of May — he’s been more of a pure “three true outcomes” slugger in the summer months of the season.
Since the calendar flipped to June, a whopping 56% of Stanton’s hits have been home runs (13 of 23). He’s batting just .167 in 40 games since June 1, but he’s still walking at a strong 13.1% clip and obviously flexing his power. Exactly half of his plate appearances have ended in a strikeout, walk or home run in that time. Stanton’s .167/.277/.471 slash dating back to June has dropped his season-long line to .228/.309/.498. That’s still 28% better than league average, per both wRC+ and OPS+, but the Yankees and Stanton alike will surely be hoping for a more balanced set of results when he returns.
Stanton will return to the lineup at a time when the Yankees’ offense has been stumbling through one of its driest spells of the year. The Yanks are just 7-14 this month and have plated only 70 runs in those 21 contests — an average of 3.33 runs per game (all while allowing 89 runs in August). They’ve been held to four or fewer runs in 13 of their past 15 contests.
Florial’s return to the big leagues will prove quite brief. There was optimism among Yankee fans when he was promoted on the heels of a .286/.368/.490 showing in Scranton, but he wound up starting just three games, going 1-for-9 with four strikeouts in that tiny sample. The former top prospect, like many Yankee farmhands in recent years, has yet to receive an earnest audition at the MLB level, receiving just 50 plate appearances over the past three seasons (and hitting just .186/.302/.300 in those sparse opportunities).
Stanton isn’t the only veteran reinforcement on the horizon for the Yanks, it should be noted. Lefty Zack Britton, who has yet to pitch in 2022 while rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery, is set to embark on a minor league rehab assignment today, tweets Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network.
The 34-year-old lefty has been a vital part of the Yankees’ late-inning relief corps when healthy, logging 123 2/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball while brandishing one of the game’s most notoriously devastating sinkers. It’ll take a bit of time for Britton to build up to readiness for a big league return, of course, but the commencement of a rehab assignment means that both he and injured closer Clay Holmes could return to the bullpen in the near future. If Holmes is back to form after a brief trip to the injured list, the Yankees can deploy two of the game’s premier sinker/grounder specialists to help lock things down late in games.
Always liked Britton. Hope he comes back healthy and gets a nice deal for next year
Britton has been stealing money from the Yankees the past 2 seasons. I hope he gets a good deal, too…from some team other than the Yankees. Same with Chapman.
It’s not stealing money when you’re out with a torn UCL.
Severino is the guy who’s been stealing money. Signed the extension and thrown barely 100 innings since lol
Severino was underpaid his first few seasons though
No he wasn’t, every job has a starting wage
So every job has a “starting wage”, but when he excels during those years and gets a big contract he is now “stealing money”, because he got hurt.
Ok then…
Yes, it is fair that every job has a starting wage. No, he is not stealing money now. See, it’s quite simple if you’re not an internet moron.
I was commenting off 1985s premise. I don’t really believe injured players are stealing money
None of those players put a gun to Cashman’s head and forced him to give them guaranteed contracts. It’s his job to do the due diligence, including scrutiny of their medical records. Every contract is a gamble because athletes get hurt. Did Cashman pay for insurance? That’s not the players’ job; that’s ownership’s decision.
Britton success will depend oin soft contact from sinker n stud def behind him.
Being a young player for Brian Cashman is extremely difficult. If you don’t produce immediately, you are never given a proper chance to adjust to major league competition.
@BaseballClassic1985- Your absolutely correct, the best thing for Florial and Andujar are to be traded in the off-season, so they can play everyday and produce for some other team in the majors. (Always kid gloves with the Yankees) or a short leash.
Andujar is a DFA candidate. He’ll be going into his second year of arbitration and no team is going to pay $1.3M plus give up value for a guy who hasn’t hit in the majors since 2018 and only has two years of control left.
@MuleorAstroMule-I guarantee you today, if Andujar isn’t traded in the off-season he will be either in AAA or he will be on the Yankees roster making that $1.3 million in arbitration or whatever. Hal can burp that. Smh
Ballclubs don’t DFA ballplayers during the off-season, thus the Yankees would have to non-tender if not trade Andujar.
Players don’t get paid by the owners, they get paid by the business. It’s not a matter of Hal going broke over it, if it’s deemed a bad deal, he’ll be let go.
@Cosmo2- that would be a bad baseball decision by Hal, to just let Andujar go for nothing. Miggy like Florial just needs to play everyday. Unfortunately that likely won’t be with Yankees. No arguing these players have talent, they just need more of an opportunity. Someone else will likely give them that chance via trade.
I like Andujar too, I don’t think he got a full proper chance but he’s getting old to be unproven. Still, I probably wouldn’t give up on him yet. My point was more in general about how decisions are made and where the money comes from.
This gets repeated all the time but I’m not sure how true it is – Gleyber and Severino were pretty young when they became regulars. Gary Sanchez, Jordan Montgomery, Domingo German were pretty young too. Even going back to guys like Phil Hughes and Robinson Cano. I don’t think Cashman has an aversion to young players – I just think you have to be a really good young player to make a talented team, and the Yankees have almost always had a lot of talent under Cashman.
✎ Edit – 4 minutes and 59 seconds
@Cosmo2, @BobbyAyala- Well it seems like you both feel the same way I feel. Is it such a stretch to trade Gleyber, Andujar, Hicks and Florial to the Marlins for Pablo López and Joey Wendle? I feel this trade in the off-season helps both teams. Gleyber and Florial are two players I really like, but I understand that in order to get what you really need , you got to part with those type of players. I would be happy to see Andujar and Florial playing everyday for the Fish. Trading Gleyber would kill me though. Lol. I’d rather trade the Gomez kid pitcher or Luis Gil, then Gleyber. Lol. How do you both feel about this in the off-season? Lmk,and thanks!
@All Rise999 – I think the general idea of a trade like that makes perfect sense – not sure about the particulars(might have to include $$ to move Hicks, etc). If your 54-70 like the Marlins, you can afford to give Andujar & Florial every day AB’s, even if they struggle. You can’t do that if your trying to win your division like New York seemingly always is. That’s all I’m saying. Btw the mention of Pablo Lopez still makes us Mariners fans sad. Not sure 8 innings if David Phelps was worth giving him up for 🙂
It’s funny I wanted Bobby Ayala in the Tino Martinez instead of Jeff Nelson. But things still worked out with Nelson though. Lol. I hated Tino, and quickly because he wasn’t my idol Don Mattingly. New Yorkers really started liking him after a couple of months though. I didn’t know the Mariners had Pablo López. Wow! I liked David Phelps to, but you guys got so screwed trading López for him though. I didn’t know that at all! With Castillo and López you guys probably are winning the AL West. I like the Mariners I always have, nice franchise.
I was bummed when Seattle traded Tino – but I was happy that everyone else got to see how good he was. That was a really good trade for you guys.. Hey, not related, but what did you think of the trade deadline for you guys? Seems like Cashman is getting killed for it right now, but I gotta think in the long run Montas is better than Montgomery. I kinda feel like the reasoning was that Monty was probably gonna be an extra bullpen arm come playoff time, while Bader could end up playing every inning in the postseason. I still think it could work out for you guys in the long run, guess we’ll see.
That’s good news but you go ahead and keep Cameron Maybin the Commentator on the shelf as long as possible.
@AdrianaGrandSlam- no, Cameron Maybin is fine. I can’t listen to Michael Kay anymore. I listen to other teams broadcasts now. When I hear Kay do the games I feel like I’m being brutally beaten and punished. Michael Kay is good at one thing only: The Michael Kay Show.
As long as the Yankees continue to be gifted with their new enlarged strike zone courtesy of the MLB dumpires, making sure that they don’t cough up their whopping division lead to some lesser favored franchise, everything will be fine.
The fix is in.
13 years and counting with no World Series title and only 1 World Series title in 22 years- despite staggering payrolls (very often the biggest payroll in MLB) year after year after year. One terrible signing/acquisition after another after another after another. Non-cohesive, disheveled mess of a team. brian cashman should have been fired years ago. In fact- he’s probably trying to think of a way to take on the rest of Trout’s contract now that Trout is an over the hill physical wreck and a pathetic shell of the player he used to be- just like brian cashman likes in a player.
Cashman is one of many problems. Boone is another issue. He manages better when he’s down key guys because it allows him less opportunity to meddle. Last night was a perfect example. He let Clarke Schmidt work his way in, and then out of a jam. If he had a healthy bullpen, there is no doubt he would have called in someone who probably would have given the game away.
It sounds shallow and reactionary, but I would love to see Hal Steinbrenner bring in Jeter for a front office job, and Mattingly as manager. Considering Cashman’s contract is up, now is the time to find a replacement.
Jeter’s mindset is really something else – watching “The Captain”, albeit boring, was a better look at what drives him than I’ve ever seen. Cashman is a businessman, someone who thinks he’s more clever than he is, definitely believes his own BS. I think someone like Jeter, an incessant competitor, who is younger and determined and driven by an insane need to ‘win’ everything, would be a good shot in the arm for the team, it’s farm system, and it’s fans. And fans would give him a long leash.
Mattingly is a great manager. He’s shown the ability to manage both big payrolls and small. I know he isn’t on the best terms with the Steinbrenners, but you have to imagine at some point he may want more than what he’s been given in Miami. He’s not the same as Jeter, but he’s the kind of manager this team needs.
Assuming the Yankees idiotically keep brian cashman after this season, his next horrible contract will likely be for Aaron Judge- already 1 of the worst contracts of all time and he’s not even a free agent yet. Rarely in MLB history has there been free agent with a higher number of glaring red flags than him- 6’7 300 lbs, very extensive and established track record of fragility (and that was during his 20s- the more durable years of a player’s career), 31 years old in the first month of the next contract. Just unbelievable that the Yankees have tolerated 1 single World Series title in 22 years and none in 13 years and counting and haven’t fired him yet- especially considering the staggering financial resources at his disposal year after year after year.
“his next horrible contract will likely be for Aaron Judge- already 1 of the worst contracts of all time”
You’re on a roll today, rolling out nonsense. Judge is playing on a 1-year, $19M contract producing the highest WAR on the planet.
Ridiculous.
I said his next contract, not his current one. When I said ‘his next horrible contract’, it was referring to the next horrible contract signed by brian cashman. You also cut off the portion that said ‘and he’s not even a free agent yet’, which again reinforces that it was referring to Aaron Judge’s next contract, not his current one. Zero chance- I repeat Zero chance- that Aaron Judge’s next contract isn’t a disaster.
How can you call it “already 1 of the worst contracts of all time” when it doesn’t exist? “Already” means it’s already happened.
Because it’s a forgone conclusion that someone (likely brian cashman if the Yankees don’t finally move on from him after this season) will give him a horrible contract. He would only be worth signing to a either a largely incentive based contract or a short term contract or a combination of the 2. Nothing else.
“very extensive and established track record of fragility”
Since 2017, Judge has 2,899 plate appearances. Look at some of the players with fewer who’ve been playing longer than he has:
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&…
Then look at his fWAR since 2017:
fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&…
Thanks for that look into the future, Mr. Wizard.
BTW, I think you meant “foregone conclusion.” “Forgone conclusion” means the opposite of what I think you intended.
Oh, it’s an internet grammar guy. Hahahaha
@TrueReality- The internet grammar guy needs to be taken out back and done ugly already. Lmao!
I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to appreciate a tip to help you write accurately since accuracy doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot to you.
“The internet grammar guy needs to be taken out back and done ugly already. Lmao!”
Says the internet tough guy.
th.bing.com/th/id/R.4a65bdb2e8a47261028b4254410b1f…
Agreed.
Internet tough guy? That’s not me at all. Way to big to be that kid. Smh.
Cashman would lose 120 games with a league average payroll, he can’t produce cost controlled star talent. Can’t draft, must spend.
So you’re blaming Cashman for Judge’s next contract that isnt even signed.
Top notch analysis.
Cashman isn’t the best GM, but to ridicule him as if he’s the worst is just stupidity.
That’s why I said ‘likely’, thought that would have made it clear, guess it didn’t for you. Assuming the Yankees don’t finally move on from brian cashman after this season, it’s highly likely he will sign Aaron Judge to a terrible contract.
The bus ride back to the enchanted kingdom is leaving in 15 minutes, make sure you’re on it. Ahahahaha!
Estevan Florian has never produced at the MLB level. While he plays up at AAA, he struggles with Major League pitching. He’s a depth piece at best.
Florial has never been given a real opportunity at the major league level. No player can be expected to produce getting a few token at bats scattered through three years.
That said, I had hoped he would have shortened his swing at some point but he hasn’t. His long swing coupled with being a free swinger isn’t a recipe for success.
Agree – his swing has a giant hole in it, and the strikeouts are an indictment on it. It’s too bad because he’s a great athlete – would love to see him succeed. He’s got that long Soriano swing (from the left side), and it’s tantalizing to think how well it might play if he is able to make more contact.
@Rick Pernell- Yeah Florial has really had a huge opportunity to produce at the MLB level, right? Smh. Get some more blankets and go back to sleep, you seem really tired. Florial will be out of options next year so expect him to make the Yankees roster, if he’s not traded.
He’s had 50 PAs. That’s almost two whole weeks of playing scattered over three years. How can you not draw definitive conclusions from such a sizable sample?
Florial & Andujar should be playing dominó for good and ask for a trade. They must fit at any team, reinforcement from Stanton should be brief,only for 2 weeks
Why is Hicks and especially Marwin still on this roster!! Much rather Florial.
The only adjustment I’d make to your statement is “especially Hicks.”
Gonzalez at least has some positional flexibility and he’s credited with a combined five Outs Above Average at short, third base and right field. His rating at second base is -2, but he’s needed less there anyway with both Gleyber and DJ able to play second.
Hicks is credited with 2 OAA in left field and -1 in center field. Hicks has the worst WPA (Win Probability Added) on the roster. WPA is defined as: “The total impact a batter’s plate appearances (or SB/CS) have on his team’s win expectancy relative to league average.”
Hicks is in Gallo territory with the fans. I think it’s best to cut him loose. It’s not happening for him in the Bronx.
I’d rather see Florial getting reps than either of them, but Cashman won’t let that happen. He gives Florial no slack although it took Benintendi weeks to find his stroke in the Bronx, and he was batting well over .300 in KC. Cashman pisses me off sometimes, and this is one of those times.
And just in time, as the Yankees finally seem like they’re getting back on track.
I had a crazy epiphany with all the latest news of the Angels owner looking to sell and Mike Trout now having to deal with a bad back the rest of his career and not being on a winner. They will certainly lose Ottani to another west coast team. Would the Angels after they sell this off season move Trout? My first thought was to trade him to Phillies so he would be with Harper. I would bet heavily that’s what will happen. But for s**ts and giggles I thought maybe the Yanks could entertain something but to do that the Yanks would have to deal away at least one bad contract to make it even remotely happen.
Trout is not what he was and most likely he will be moved to a corner outfield spot in the near future. Would trading Stanton if he waived his no trade with Hicks (20plus million left on contract) and a top outfield prospect for Trout be worthwhile for both teams? Stanton is putting up better numbers than Trout this season but Trout is a year younger. Does this make any sense to bring home a local kid to put the pinstripes on?
Will Florial ever get a chance?? Seems like he handles minor league pitching pretty well, but I don’t see much opportunity for him with the Yankees. When Judge bolts this offseason, I’m betting they replace him with another big name. Should just trade Florial while no one knows if he can produce at the major league level or not.
With his speed, Florial should be more of a contact hitter which he isn’t…which is why he doesn’t stick…..his strikeouts negate his value and the fact that he just doesn’t put the ball in play and use his speed spells his constant demotions back to the minor leagues…….PS….Judge isn’t going to bolt the Yankees….he’ll make them pay in $ and years but he must realize that he’s the biggest fish in a big pond unlike any other in MLB….and his marketing and contract just won’t be matched by any other team.
The Mets left Philly with more gifted wins, come to the Bronx and score all of their 4 runs in both games due to bad defense/mistakes by Yankees. Take away the Phillies, they will not be in first right now.
Can’t take away the Phillies. They are a playoff team. You will have your chance to beat up on the Phillies next month. If not then the Braves deserve to finish second.
Point was the Mets look better on paper than they actually are. No matter how you want to slice it, the difference between the two teams right now are the Phillies (15-4 vs. 6-6). If the Mets earned their 15 wins, it would be a different story. They objectively play terrible against the Mets and let a bunch of those games get away. I fully expect the Phillies little brothers to spoil the Mets hopes.
Look better on paper? What counts is on the field. The Mets have the second best record. The difference is the Mets have a winning record against the Braves. Don’t expect other teams to have winning recorded against the Metswhen the Braves have failed to do so as well.
This is exactly why the Yankees should be TRADING these prospects for big league needs. Prospects usually cannot break thru on expensive veteran laden teams. They basically just start to lose value until they are worthless like Clint Frazier. Trade these guys to teams like the Royals or Pirates where they can get a legit shot and the Yanks can get veteran help for their automatic playoff runs.
Then if they work out, the Yankees can always just buy them later with a new batch of prospects in a trade or as a free agent. If they don’t then no loss.
The Yankees built their dynasty in the 90’s off of home grown talent. Some prospects should be traded but the really good ones should never be traded. I’ll take young controllable talent over ten year deals every day.
It’s not the 90s anymore. They can’t build teams the same way they did in 1920 or 1950 either.
The Rays operate the way they do because they HAVE to. The Yankees should not copy them because they have the resources the Rays lack.
Besides, no one knows who the really good ones are until hindsight. Clint Frazier is a prime example.
And that’s why they won 4 in five years and one since. Even the Dodgers supplement their big signings with talented young players. Everyone on the team can’t make 30 to 40 mil a year.
Cashman continues to overlook and m, frankly, insult Florial. Like Andujar, he ought to demand a trade — other organizations value him much more highly.
Expect him — once he dons another uniform — to quickly become a cross between Bernie Williams and Jay Buhner.
Bernie Buhner. I think I bought insurance from that guy.
Love what I’ve seen of Oswaldo Cabrera!!! IF the Yankees truly have 2 middle infielders(Volpe and Peraza) better than Cabrera WOW!!!
Glad the .160 average is got you all pumped up.