You’ve heard it said on TV broadcasts, across Yankees Twitter, and maybe even in your own conversations among fellow fans.
“The Yankee offense will look much better when Giancarlo Stanton returns.”
Stanton, who hasn’t played in a game since July 23, is set to begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset this weekend, giving some Yankee fans hope that better days are ahead for an offense that has scored a putrid 19 runs over the last 10 games.
But for those hopefuls, a reality check is in order: this offense needs a lot more than the return of Stanton to get back to its early-season form.
Sure, bringing back Stanton would give the Yankees back an All-Star and a second dynamic power bat to pair with Aaron Judge, and give their painfully thin lineup a bit more length, but the Yanks are only one year removed from proving to themselves that they need more than a productive Judge and Stanton to have success.
In 2021, Judge and Stanton finally provided the Yanks with two healthy seasons where they were able to stay in the lineup, Judge playing in 148 games and hitting 39 home runs in an All-Star season while Stanton hit 35 bombs in 139 games. Despite that, the Bombers finished 13th in the league in OPS in 2021, were painfully inconsistent, and needed a 13-game winning streak late in the summer to help secure the last playoff spot in the American League.
The lineup looks a lot different in 2022, but similar problems remain. While DJ LeMahieu has noticeably improved after a 2021 where injuries clearly hampered his production, several other formerly established bats have disappeared, or haven’t made much of an impact at all this season. Josh Donaldson, despite saving the Yanks from further disaster with a walk-off grand slam on Wednesday night, is still below league average with a .694 OPS on the season. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, also brought over in the deal for Donaldson, has been even worse, posting a .630 OPS on the year with zero power. Aaron Hicks’ brutal offensive struggles have gotten so bad to the point where recent call-up Oswaldo Cabrera started in right field for just the second time as a pro on Friday night to keep Hicks out of the lineup.
Elsewhere in the outfield, Andrew Benintendi, a candidate for regression given his high BABIP in Kansas City, has done just that since being traded to New York, posting a lowly .601 OPS since the trade while batting below .200. Gleyber Torres, looking like a borderline All-Star before the break, has quickly turned back to 2020-21 levels of frustration at the plate, batting .169 with a .413 OPS over his last 19 games.
Have all of those struggles led Judge to press and try to put the offensive burden on his own shoulders? It seems possible considering he has just two hits in his last 29 plate appearances, a span of seven games.
So, will the return of Stanton give the Yankees a much-needed established bat to take some of that weight off of Judge and Anthony Rizzo? Absolutely. Will it fix the fact that the Yankees have received barely any offensive production from the left side of the infield and two of their three outfield spots for nearly the entire season, and are no longer getting any from second base? Probably not.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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