Giancarlo Stanton dealing with 'heavy pain' from elbow tendinitis, readiness for Opening Day in question
Aaron Boone announced this weekend that Giancarlo Stanton is dealing with ‘elbow issues’ and may not be ready Opening Day – and we now know exactly how bad those issues are.
Speaking to the media Monday morning ahead of the Yankees’ first full-squad workout, Stanton described having ‘tennis elbow’ tendinitis in both of his elbows – and it’s something he felt for most of last season, too.
“Tennis elbow, it’s tears in the tendon, so it's not when did it feel good, when did it feel bad. There's always the pain level there, and you got to deal with that; definitely not just soreness, but it was a manageable thing last year,” Stanton said. “This is just a time to get as much time as I can. The idea is not to take downtime [during the season], so this is the smartest time during a shorter offseason window to be able to do that.”
The Yankees’ season opener is five weeks from Thursday, but Stanton hasn’t swung a bat in ‘three or four weeks’ – so how ready he’ll be at that point remains to be seen, but for now, not ready is a possibility.
“Definitely behind, but I mean that's just a matter of being ready for a full go today as opposed to in a little bit,” Stanton said. “We have five, six weeks here. It'll be a good ramp-up from there. We'll see how that goes."
Stanton, who turned 35 in November, hit .233 with 27 home runs and 72 RBI last year, and he hit .273 with seven huge homers and 16 RBI in the postseason – at least all of the latter, and some of the former, while dealing with these elbow issues.
They persist, but for now, surgery is not an option, unless something more goes horribly awry.
“If you blow it up, which overdoing it would, but obviously not what you want,” Stanton said. “That would be the same if anything were to tear off. But that’s not a worry.”
