A lot of reason for concern with Giancarlo Stanton’s tennis elbows, both with Stanton himself and the Yankees’ lineup without him.
For Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber, one big concern is that even if Stanton is ready for Opening Day, it’s going to be an issue he has to manage all season, because the only other option is intervene and come back when fully healed, even if you risk missing major time.
“I don't know how damaging or difficult this is going to be for him, but the word is that he had been dealing with this all of last season, so it feels like it's something he'll be able to play through. He just doesn't want to do it for a month of spring training,” Tiki said.
“Him having it last year actually concerns me even more because it hasn't gone away – even yesterday he said he’s in big pain, like it’s not a minor thing,” Evan replied. “Yes, he played through it last year, but it doesn't sound like he was playing through this kind of pain, and if he's dealing with this in the first few days of spring training, it's fair to wonder, is it ever gonna go away?”
Tiki admitted ‘I don’t know if it ever will,’ and It looks like something that may be chronic and require constant treatment and medications as he deals with pain tolerance.
The bigger question(s) on that front, though, might be how did this happen initially and/or how long has he truly been dealing with this…and how could it have been prevented?
“The first thing I said when we heard about this is, how did this happen? What was he doing? Is he lifting too much weights? What's causing the stress to cause this to, to occur?” Tiki said. “Apparently, it's been something he's dealt with, and even though he said he had it last year, I’m sure he's dealt with it for a lot of years because, I mean, he's muscular. You can see it just looking at his arms and his shoulders and his back – he’s wound tightly, and that tight musculature pulls on your joints. I don't wanna say it was inevitable, but it was probably inevitable.”
And what else is inevitable is Stanton missing time every season for one reason or another, and the problem specifically this year with that is that seeing what the Yankees look like now without him penciled in at DH…and, it’s not a lineup Evan or Tiki would classify as deep.
“What concerns me about this is when you look at the Yankees roster and their depth chart as of right now, they do not have a margin for error,” Evan said. “So, if Stanton isn't gonna be ready for opening day, when you consider what Aaron Boone said the other day about their prospects…if he's missing considerable time, who's his replacement?”
The Yankees still don’t have a solid third baseman, and anyone in-house who slots in there is likely to be a drop-off at least offensively from Gleyber Torres (even if a full season of Jazz Chisholm mitigates that some), and their outfield isn’t quite ready to have a fourth everyday player right now, either.
“I’ll tell you, they don't have guys who can replace him.
They’ve got three outfielders who are everyday players, but Jasson Dominguez has a lot to prove, and their fourth outfielder, Trent Grisham, is already dealing with a hamstring issue,” Evan said. “And their fifth outfielder, at least on their 40-man, is Everson Pereira, who had Tommy John last year. He hasn't taken an at-bat since May, and I don't know if the Yankees believe that Everson Pereira is gonna be able to help them immediately. That’s their outfield depth, and when we talk about their infield depth, we still don't know who their third baseman is, so this makes it dangerous to me.”