Since we live in one of the few true baseball towns left, we New Yorkers take a special pride in our pastime. We brag about our baseball knowledge, our unique bond to the game's history, and we shower players with praise or profanity based on our self-anointed status as supreme experts.
Sometimes, our fervor swerves into areas beyond our expertise. We aren't just fans, but also symbolic managers, general managers, and doctors. We don't just judge players on performance and ability, but also availability, meting out medieval, medical opinions on players who miss more games than we think they should.
We seem to have a frothing fervor reserved for Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees' pricey import whom fans feel has been a wholesale disappointment since he joined the Bronx Bombers in a trade with the Miami Marlins. Before he landed in the Bronx, Stanton slugged is way to the 2017 NL MVP, swatting 59 homers, driving in 132 runs, and posting a .631 slugging percentage, all of which lead the league.
Stanton had a fine maiden season in pinstripes, clubbing 38 homers with 100 RBI in 158 games. But it was seen as a disappointment because of his last, epic year in the National League and his monstrous salary ($25 million). Had you removed Stanton's boomtown contract, his 2018 season would have been viewed through a more proper prism. But since Stanton signed a 13-year, $325 million deal with the Marlins, he's expected to blast Bunyanesque homers, play a Matrix left field, and suit-up for every inning of every game.
So while the Yankees won 103 games and bashed over 300 homers in 2019, you'd figure Stanton was part of the conga line of long ball hitters. Instead, he was crippled by injuries, played just 18 games, hit three homers and drove in 13 runs. Add his salary plus his sagging playoff numbers (.235 BA / 2 HR/ 3 RBI in 40 plate appearances) and Stanton is viewed more like a failed mercenary than as a true Yankee.
And since Yankees, new and old, are judged on high deeds under brown leaves, it doesn't help that Stanton has been largely a playoff apparition. In fact, the recent reports, and subsequent punishments, behind the illegal sign-stealing by the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros, have deflected some of the blame and stain from Stanton. For now, at least, the Yankees were bounced from last three playoffs by cheaters.
Still, WFAN is often a sounding board for Stanton bashing. He's just here for the paycheck and postseason, with the summer schedule wholly optional. The younger, homegrown stars, from Aaron Judge to Gary Sanchez to Miguel Andujar, are way more embraced as building blocks on a budding dynasty.
For his part, Stanton is not the typical me-first Millennial star who travels with a phalanx of sycophants. He doesn't craft self-indulgent social media posts. And he's refreshingly modest, if not muted, considering his bankroll, chiseled body, and celebrity. Indeed, Stanton is quite refreshing when compared to another electric slugger from Flushing whose injuries and eccentric ways have placed him on the dark side of public perception.
At 30, Stanton is in his prime, and should be primed to put up big numbers in 2020. When you consider Andujar is returning from injury plus the megawatt deal that bagged Gerrit Cole, the Yankees are the chalk to moonwalk to the World Series. So you can see Giancarlo Stanton as tainted goods or a fresh addition to a loaded lineup. If he's the latter, then the ladder to world title No. 28 will be all the more possible.
Twitter: @JasonKeidel
