No one questions Giancarlo Stanton’s prodigious power, but the Yankees slugger has trouble staying healthy and is vastly overpaid. Here are two props available to wager at Mybookie on Stanton’s 2020 MLB season – assuming there is one – and an overview.
Giancarlo Stanton MLB Awards Odds & Analysis For 2020 Season
- Most home runs of any batter: Stanton is +2000
- AL MVP Award: Stanton is TBA
That the MLB season was suspended in mid-March benefitted Stanton after he suffered a Grade 1 calf strain in late February. Stanton sustained the injury while performing defensive drills at the George M. Steinbrenner Field complex in Tampa. He wasn’t likely to be ready for Opening Day.
Stanton has dealt with injury problems throughout his career, as he’s been on the IL six times, not counting last year’s transfer from the 10-day to the 60-day IL. Just three times in 10 seasons has Stanton played in 150 or more games. Not counting Stanton’s rookie season of 2010 (he wasn’t called up until June), he’s played in less than 125 games in five of nine seasons.
After playing in 158 games during his first Yankees season in 2018, Stanton was limited to 18 regular-season games in ’19, batting .288/.403/.492 with three homers and 13 RBIs. He appeared in five postseason games but sustained a Grade 2 strain of his right quadriceps during Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Astros.
“Last season was terrible,” Stanton said. “But those were the cards I was dealt. You can’t feel sorry for yourself; you just have to work hard to get out of situations like that. Watching my teammates playing so well and working so hard was good to see. The way they battled all year motivated me to get back on the field.”
Last year, the Yankees placed 30 different players on the injured list for a total of 39 IL stints, both the highest single-season totals on record for any Major League team. Those players accounted for a total of 2,129 player-games missed and seven players made multiple IL trips.
Manager Aaron Boone has said he believes Stanton will be able to return as an impact force in the lineup, despite having missed so much time of late.
“G is pretty good at knowing himself and preparing, making sure he’s good at replicating reps with his work behind the scenes and what he does in the cage and stuff,” Boone said. “He’s pretty diligent at that. Last year, for as much time as he did miss, he garnered a lot of at-bats down here [in Florida] between the different times during the season. I feel like from a hitting standpoint, he saw a lot of reps last year for it being in a way a lost season.”
One model I saw projected Stanton to bat .268 with 39 home runs, 96 RBI, and 83 runs scored this season, but that was obviously over 162 games. The 30-year-old is owed $244 million on a contract that runs through 2027. He has a player option to opt-out of his deal each offseason from 2021 through 2027 but there’s no way he will do that.
Giancarlo Stanton signed a 13-year, $325 million contract with Miami in 2014. In 2017 before being traded to the Yankees, Stanton was coming off a career-year in Miami. He clubbed 59 home runs and drove in 132 runs at 27 years old. He had a slash line of .281/.376/.631 with an incredible 1.007 OPS. He was in the midst of his prime.
The Yanks acquired Stanton in December 2017 for veteran Starlin Castro and two minor leaguers: pitcher Jorge Guzman and infielder Jose Devers. The Marlins just wanted rid of Stanton’s contract. The Yankees were a couple months removed from narrowly missing a chance to get back to the World Series, having lost the 2017 American League Championship Series in seven games to the Astros. In 2018, Stanton certainly delivered as expected. He hit .266 in 158 games with 38 home runs and 100 RBIs.
