It's an idea that has been easier said than done for the Yankees for the last five years: play both Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the outfield, maximizing them while also opening up the DH slot to be rotated a little more often.
Manager Aaron Boone hinted Tuesday that he’s leaning towards doing that a little more often in 2023, with one caveat: it might be Judge, and not Stanton, in left.
“I’m open to things like that, especially in the home ballpark,” Boone said. “So, we’ll see. It’s something that I would say I’m at least considering and is on the table and we’ll just kind of see how that goes and letting that play out, getting guys reps at different spots. No decisions on that yet, but it is something on my board."
Boone also intimated he’d be comfortable with Judge in center, moving Harrison Bader to left, and putting Stanton in right, a defensive alignment they can deploy anywhere and still have Aaron Hicks or someone else come in for defense in the late innings.
And that’s good, because Judge’s 729 MLB games include exactly zero innings in left field. Stanton has played 60 games there, all of them as a Yankee and more than half of those (36) back in 2018, his first year here, when Boone first tried to solve the conundrum of having two All-World right fielders.
That season, Stanton basically evenly split his 72 outfield appearances in each corner, but the number in left field has continued to dwindle since. The thing about it is, as Boone mentioned last week that he plans to “get a little creative” to get Giancarlo in the outfield, well, moving Judge to left field came up as a possibility.
Stanton was, once upon a time, a Gold Glove-caliber right fielder, but injuries and the Yankees’ desire to use him as a DH have limited his time. When he has started in the outfield in the last couple years, he has often been replaced late for defense – and that’s likely where Boone’s thoughts lie.
Judge showed he was capable of playing center field every day when he did it last season, and following the progression of Johnny Damon, Brett Gardner, and now Aaron Hicks, Judge could be fairly competent in the spacious Yankee Stadium left field – leaving Stanton, the “weaker” defensive outfielder, in the shorter right field.
Look at 2022: Stanton’s four regular season starts in left came in Boston and Houston, two of the smallest and/or “easiest” left fields to play based on distance and high walls, and he started in left in the ALCS in Houston to try to get Matt Carpenter’s bat in the lineup at DH.
And, in 2021, the last year without a universal DH, he made 10 starts in left, four coming in NL parks (Miami and Citi Field), three of them one-off games, and three others coming in a September series in Baltimore where the Yankees were trying to get Luke Voit into the lineup alongside Anthony Rizzo.
That’s 12 of 15 total games of “last resort” or “path of least resistance” chances to put Stanton in left, versus dozens more of simply playing the more comfortable right field.
Whatever it takes, though, because Stanton is all in to do whatever he has to this year to finally win a ring.
“Continue to be similar to last year,” Stanton said about playing the outfield. “Obviously, road bump with the injury there, but I’ve got to build up to a similar game plan seeing what we can accomplish putting us in the best scenario to win each night, wherever that is in the lineup. We’re in a good spot and have the pieces to get it done, and we understand the ultimate goal is a championship.”
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