Yankees general manager Brian Cashman gave a blunt assessment of Giancarlo Stanton at last week’s GM meetings, identifying his slugger as “injury prone.”
“We’ve gotta get Stanton up and running again,” Cashman said, via Gary Phillips of the Daily News. “He’s injury prone. We all have lived and known that, but he’s never not hit when he’s playing, and this year is the first time that that’s happened.”
Cashman also added that Stanton is likely to get hurt again, as that has been his track record, and Stanton’s agent Joel Wolfe clearly didn’t care for those comments.
In response to Cashman’s assessment of Stanton, Wolfe, via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, said Cashman’s comments should be taken into account when players are weighing where to sign in free agency.
“I read the context of the entire interview,” Wolfe said. “I think it’s a good reminder for all free agents considering signing in New York, both foreign and domestic, that to play for that team you’ve got to be made of Teflon, both mentally and physically, because you can never let your guard down, even in the offseason.”
Wolfe’s “both foreign and domestic” comments are notable, as the agent also represents star Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is expected to be one of the top free agent pitchers on the market this winter. Cashman traveled to Japan to scout Yamamoto himself, and the righty pitched a no-hitter that night.
Cashman came out with a fiery press conference at the GM Meetings last week, fighting back on criticisms about himself and the Yankees, from their reliance on analytics to trades and signings in recent years that have gone wrong, like Sonny Gray and Joey Gallo.