The Yankees are one of the hottest teams in baseball, boast the best record in baseball, and Giancarlo Stanton launched another home run on Friday night after going 3-for-4 with two home runs the night before.
Stanton now holds a 148 OPS+ on the season, or nearly 50 percent above league average.
But on Friday’s edition of MLB Now, Brian Kenny made the case that Stanton is a net negative for the Yanks, and that the team likely wishes it never made the trade for the slugging outfielder.
“There is feast or famine, and when you’re watching it game to game, especially, I believe...against good pitching, there’s a lot of famine, and we know come playoff time, you’re gonna be facing top pitching,” Kenny said.
“It’s hard to barrel up the ball. You’re only gonna do it one every 20 times. He’ll do that, but what about the other 19? What’s he doing in those at-bats? You can be on those [barrel] leaderboards, but still not be a good player.”
The concerns with facing good pitching was a peculiar argument given the fact that Stanton had just taken Dylan Cease, the league’s current strikeout leader who led the league in strikeouts per nine innings last year, deep twice the night before. As for Kenny’s playoff concerns, Stanton is batting .297 with a 1.108 OPS in 18 career playoff games, and went 3-for-4 with a home run in last year’s Wild Card Game. In 2020, Stanton carried the offense in the playoffs, making history with six home runs in five postseason games.
Of course, the early years of Stanton in the Bronx brought concerns considering his massive contract, as he was out nearly all of 2019 before battling more injury early in the 2020 season, and Kenny brought up Stanton’s contract, with takes him through the 2027 season, in his argument against Stanton’s worth.
“He hasn’t even gotten to the [Albert] Pujols part of his contract, where he’s an aging guy with diminishing skills,” Kenny said. “These are supposed to be the prime years, even tough he’s 32, but these are supposed to be the great years, and he’s still got six years left.”
Stanton seems to be performing like a player in the prime of his career, as he has been healthy since the start of last year, and is putting up big numbers again after hitting 35 home runs last year. But Kenny also pointed the finger as Stanton’s deal as a reason why the Yanks haven’t splurged on big-name free agents, after he was challenged that the Yankees could afford anyone they want, and are in better position than anyone else to absorb a contract like Stanton’s.
“The last couple years, though, when Brian Cashman has been quiet on the position player market, I think a lot of it has to do with being tied up to the money and the positon,” Kenny said. “You can go over budget, but he’s occupying those slots, especially a lot of DH spots.”
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise when Kenny concluded by suggesting that the Yankees likely regret making that trade with the Marlins, when all they shipped out was Starlin Castro (who was immediately replaced by All-Star Gleyber Torres), pitcher Jorge Guzman (who has made three big-league appearances and is now with the Giants), and infielder Jose Devers, who hit .244 in his 21 big-league games last year, and started this season down in Class-A.
“I thought that was a mistake the Yankees made,” Kenny said. “I think if the Yankees could look back now and say ‘Hey, we could go back in time and not make that trade,’ would they do it? They wouldn’t make it.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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