Beneath this cynical, empirically motivated exterior, I’m really a giant softie. As such, I adore it when an outdated man turns again the clock and rediscovers the magic one final time. Virtually a decade in the past, Giancarlo Stanton was the proto-Aaron Decide: A participant who was larger and stronger than any outfielder we’d ever seen, and able to hitting the ball a lot more durable than anybody else within the league.
Stanton got here of age simply as Statcast made exit velocity public information, although his 2017 season — the height of his stardom — was spectacular sufficient by the metrics Henry Chadwick scrawled on a cave wall 15,000 years in the past. These numbers: 59 dwelling runs, 123 runs scored, 132 RBI, a .631 slugging share. Small marvel Stanton was named the MVP of the Nationwide League that 12 months.
And everyone knows what got here subsequent. The commerce to New York — or slightly, given the Marlins’ proclivities on the time, the commerce of Stanton’s record-setting contract to New York. The Yankees aren’t any stranger to highly effective duos in the course of the lineup, however the Stanton-Decide Neo-Bash Brothers act by no means received a full listening to. Decide was hampered by damage in 2018, and Stanton performed simply 41 video games in 2019 and 2020 mixed because of accidents to his biceps, shoulder, knee, quadriceps, and hamstring.
By the point he performed his subsequent full season in 2021, Stanton was 31 years outdated and beginning to break down. He was an excellent participant that 12 months — 35 homers, a 138 wRC+, 3.0 WAR — however not the franchise icon he had been in Miami. Within the three seasons since, it’s been extra of the identical. Age progresses, that massive physique slows down, and nagging accidents chip away at him like eroding desert sands on the Nice Sphinx.
What’s Stanton now? Nicely, for the previous three seasons he’s been good for a median of 27 dwelling runs in 108 video games a 12 months. He’s as discriminating a swinger as Joey Votto, and he’s all the time carried a strikeout price commensurate together with his uncooked energy. However now, that stroll price is into the one digits and the strikeout price is up over 30%. This season, Stanton’s dash pace was within the third percentile, and if he didn’t personal a mitt we’d by no means know as a result of he hasn’t performed an inning within the outfield since September 2023.
Stanton is all bat, and nothing however the bat at this level in his profession. Not wishing to be unkind, the outcomes depart quite a bit to be desired. Over the previous three seasons, Stanton has hit .212/.291/.454, which is a wRC+ of 106. That’s hardly late-career Albert Pujols territory, but in addition: These Yankees will not be these Angels. They’d need extra from a full-time DH making $32 million this 12 months.
However even now, there may be one factor Stanton can do. A month earlier than he turns 35, with virtually 7,000 main league plate appearances behind him and an damage historical past that sounds just like the lyrics to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes,” Stanton can nonetheless swing a baseball bat more durable than any man alive.
In keeping with Baseball Savant’s bat monitoring leaderboard, Stanton’s common bat pace on aggressive swings this 12 months was 81.2 miles per hour. That’s not solely the very best mark in baseball, it’s the very best by an enormous margin. The hole between Stanton and second-place Oneil Cruz is bigger than the hole between Cruz and Eleventh-ranked Christopher Morel.
The affect, so to talk, of that talent is gigantic.
Stanton received ALCS MVP on the energy of solely 4 base hits in your complete sequence. However all 4 of them had been dwelling runs. Throughout 9 postseason video games, Stanton has 10 hits: 5 dwelling runs, two doubles, and three singles. That’s ok for a batting common of .294 — good by virtually anybody’s requirements, however not in and of itself noteworthy. Brayan Rocchio hit .333 this postseason, as an illustration, and everybody may have forgotten all about it by Thanksgiving.
What makes Stanton particular — what’s all the time made him particular — is his skill to get probably the most out of his contact. Of Stanton’s 10 base hits, the softest got here off the bat at 96.4 mph. Six of his hits had exit velocities within the 110s. No different workforce, together with the non-Stanton Yankees, has extra base hits with exit velocities that prime this postseason. Amongst hitters with at the very least 20 balls in play this postseason, Stanton is second in slugging share on contact, first in xSLG, and second in xwOBACON.
And whereas traditionalists won’t love Stanton’s three-true-outcomes type, no person can accuse him of not being a well timed hitter this postseason. Stanton drove in at the very least one run with eight of these 10 complete hits. 4 of these RBI hits broke a tie; a fifth introduced the Yankees degree in a recreation they’d trailed for the reason that second inning. Is {that a} repeatable talent? Probably not. However you win ALCS MVP by making your hits depend.
Baseball followers are inclined to have an important appreciation for historical past and a proclivity for schmaltz and nostalgia. However the sport itself is cruel and unsentimental. In the future, you’re top-of-the-line hitters in baseball, on monitor to hit 600 and even 700 dwelling runs earlier than all is alleged and achieved. The subsequent, you’re an afterthought.
However generally, gamers like Stanton get a reprieve. Truly, many nice hitters do. Ted Williams had one final run at .400 at age 38. Pujols received his farewell tour. Votto reinvented himself for a 36-homer marketing campaign at age 37, after he’d regarded cooked for years earlier than. Is Stanton doing the identical now?
Or is that this merely a reminder of what has all the time been? The sport has modified profoundly over the previous 15 years, and so has Stanton himself. It’s simple to neglect that — if you put aside the contract, and the accidents, and the sequence of earlier disappointments, and being eclipsed totally by Decide and Soto — this man was born to hit the stuffing out of a baseball. He’s all the time been ready to try this. And so long as pitchers maintain hanging sliders and leaving fastballs up within the zone, he all the time will.
