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Stanton has become a punchline

On August 8th, Giancarlo Stanton suffered a grade one hamstring strain running from first to second.  A grade one strain is the mildest type of strain, and Stanton was given a timeline of 3-4 weeks to return to game action.

It’s now been 4.5 weeks, and Stanton still has “no timetable to return.” Here is the most recent update from Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch: “Giancarlo Stanton ran the bases, hit off a machine and threw today at Yankee Stadium. Aaron Boone said there is still no timetable for his return.”

Stanton is able to hit, run and throw without issue, but he still can’t play. He’s able to perform all of the necessary tasks to play baseball, however he is unable to play baseball.

If you really want to dive in, Stanton doesn’t need to be able to run. He doesn’t play the field anymore. Whenever he puts a ball in play, he jogs at about a 40-50% clip, so it’s not like he runs full speed anyway.  To add insult to injury, the YES Network was showing videos of Stanton prancing and skipping around the field like a high school cheerleader yesterday. The videos were beyond embarrassing. They also begged the question- if he’s able to jump around on a field, why can’t he take a couple of swings a game as a DH?

It’s true that other Yankees have gotten injured, but at least our other players have attempted to come back. Aaron Judge tried to come back early from his calf strain. He ended up re-aggravating it, but at least he gave it a shot and wanted to be out there. Gleyber Torres strained both his hamstring AND his quad and came back in two weeks. Stanton strained ONLY his hamstring and will end up missing at least six weeks when it’s all said and done.

Another brutal aspect of the situation is the list of players the Yankees could have had instead of Stanton:

Christian Yelich

Manny Machado

Bryce Harper

Patrick Corbin

Charlie Morton

and many more.

The Yankees basically had their pick of the litter of any of the premium talent that they wanted. Unfortunately, they picked the one guy that doesn’t play.

You might be thinking that I sound like an armchair quarterback or that I have no idea what it’s like to be a major league baseball player. I don’t. However I do know that if someone is able to perform all of their tasks relevant to their profession, but still refuse to actually go to work, something is clearly wrong.