Winners of seven of their last 10 games heading into their Sunday night “Subway Series” matchup with the New York Mets, the New York Yankees are starting to pull away in the American League East.
But despite a 4 1/2 game lead over the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees are still without a big piece of their offense. Giancarlo Stanton, their 35-year-old designated hitter, has missed the whole season so far with painful tendinitis in both elbows.
It was less than two weeks ago that the Yankees said that Stanton had shown such a degree of improvement that he could be back in the lineup by the end of May. The slugger took live batting practice against Yankees righty Jake Cousins on May 6, the first time he had faced actual pitching all year.
Stanton is in the 11th season of a 13-year, $325 million contract he signed with the Miami Marlins — the team that made him a second-round draft pick out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California in 2007.
Stanton made his big league debut three years later at age 20. Since 2010, the season he arrived in MLB, no one has hit more home runs than Stanton, whose 429 are 20 more than the now-retired Nelson Cruz over that same time period.
Stanton belted four home runs in last season’s AL Championship Series, propelling New York to a four-games-to-one victory over the Cleveland Guardians. In the World Series, where the Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, Stanton hit two more home runs.
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So it had to be disappointing for the Yankees to learn on Saturday that Stanton remains far from a return to action.
According to Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, manager Aaron Boone revealed on Saturday that despite Stanton’s apparent progress, there is still no date set for the six-time All-Star to start a rehab assignment.
With typical MLB position player rehab assignments capped at 20 days, that means Stanton will be likely three weeks away from a comeback even when he finally starts a rehab stint.
Optimistically, the Yankees are now likely looking at a date in late June or July at the earliest for Stanton’s return.
When he comes back, Stanton will be limited to DH duties, Boone has confirmed. Stanton has played more than 1,100 games in the outfield in his career, but he has not played in the field at all since 2023.
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