Gian-gone-lo! It's Time For The Yankees To Say Goodbye To Stanton

It’s time to blow everything up and start from scratch….and I mean everything. Say goodbye to dead weight in the front office, players and coaches on the field and that means some big names. I’m talking about Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman, but not just them. It’s time to do it and do it right….

Aaron Judge deserves a legit chance at a championship and he isn’t getting any younger. The idea of “running it back” with the same team and giving it another shot is just stupid. The insanity must stop. Some tough decisions need to be made, and one of those is his good friend Giancarlo Stanton. It’s time.

Cutting someone isn’t easy. The Yankees had to do it with DJ LeMahieu and Alex Rodriguez only to name a couple. It happens. They aren’t easy decisions to make and they becomes especially difficult when they are still obligated to pay those players but, sometimes it is what is best for the team and that is the case here.

Stanton has been a Yankee for nine seasons now. Out of a possible 1,356 games he’s only played in 764 (the 2020 season was shorted to only 60 games due to the Covid pandemic). He’s been plagued by injuries over the years and this year was no exception. When Stanton is on, he’s on. He’s a force to be reckoned with but like Judge, he’s not getting any younger and I am tired of tying up a roster spot with a guy that can’t stay healthy. It doesn’t get easier as anyone ages but Stanton is too focused on his heavy lifting instead of mobility and stretching. It’s a problem the Yankees just can’t afford anymore.

It’s time to cut our losses and release Stanton. A long lockout is coming, and whenever we come out the other side of this and are ready to play Stanton just doesn’t have a place on this team. I’ve had too many people tell me it makes more sense for the Yankees to keep him and I couldn’t disagree more. All I keep hearing about is how Stanton’s power is still there and with only one more season the Yankees might as well bring him into whatever Spring Training looks like next season post lockout and see if he can contribute anything, even if it is just as a DH.

But why should that be enough? The only way Stanton contributes is by staying healthy because it takes him for freaking ever to get his timing back when he does return from IL stints and he hits .250 because occasionally he runs into one. He tempts you with power occasionally otherwise he just clogs up the bench and the bases with no ability to run the bases. The whole idea of keeping him to see what he has left in the tank is the exact philosophy that got us into this mess. We have the data, it ain’t good and it’s not going to change.

A roster is valuable and has limited space. If the only thing Stanton can do is DH and go to the IL, that’s not worth $15 million. If he had a proven track record of 500-600 productive at bats a season, it might be different. But he hasn’t so he is a waste of a spot on the bench. Stanton can’t even run to first without tweaking something. My grandmother runs faster than him.

Not to mention, I am tired of tying up the DH spot with one person. The Yankees would greatly benefit having that spot more available so they can give guys a partial rest. It would help the Yankees avoid the infinitely long IL list. It’s called smarter baseball.

So as much as some people may hate it, it’s time to dump Stanton’s dead weight. Bench space is too valuable to carry a guy who really lives on the IL. There’s no convincing me otherwise!

–Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj