Giancarlo Stanton sat out the Yankees’ final two games in Baltimore due for rest purposes, manager Aaron Boone saying over the weekend that Big G was “a little exhausted” going into the All-Star break.
Boomer Esiason and Jerry Recco just want to know one thing: why?
“Why is he not starting, and why is he exhausted?” Boomer asked. “He’s a highly-paid athlete.”
“To go back to Houston, for him to sit in the first game…why?” Jerry replied. “Just go up and DH and get your at-bats. But you have Boone talking about how he was exhausted going into the break, and exhausted coming out of the break. From what?”
Stanton has played in 80 of the Yankees’ first 97 games, and to be fair, even with the weekend absences, he was at 78 of 92 before the break.
Still, Stanton played 139 last year and played in 159 and 158 his last year in Miami and first in New York (2017-18), so this is not exactly uncharted territory.
Still, no one will say exactly what the issue is other than “exhaustion.”
“He wants to give me extra time. I am just beat up a little bit overall,” Stanton said Sunday. “But I am fine. I will be in there Tuesday.”
“I just think it’s the middle of the rough stretch of a grueling schedule and stuff and I just think he’s a little beat up, but nothing that I’m concerned about,” Boone said. “There’s no injury stuff going on, other than he was a little exhausted going into the break and coming out, I sensed that a little bit. Really, it’s just my call saying I think it’s wise we take a couple of days right now and get him to where (he’s) the wrecking machine that he is, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use him today.”
That all said, Stanton was healthy enough to not only participate in the All-Star Game itself, he won the game’s MVP award after hitting a two-run dinger, so how “exhausted” can he be?
“From All-Star weekend and hanging out?” Boomer wondered.
“He DH’s half the time, I don’t get it,” Jerry replied. “He’s a great player and a great hitter, I understand, but get on the field!”
Jerry did note the Yankees won two of three in Baltimore (although they were swept in Houston), and that the Yankees are still way up in the AL East, but Boomer believes teams should come out of the break firing on all cylinders, but the Yankees (and Mets) came out “bumbling and stumbling.”
“Maybe because they had so many players at the All-Star break enjoying themselves,” Boomer said, “and that gets exhausting?”
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