The New York Yankees are moving Giancarlo Stanton to the 60-day injured list, the team announced Thursday.
Stanton has yet to play this season after developing tendinitis in both of his elbows during the offseason. Before reporting to spring training, Stanton told the team that he hadn’t swung a bat for three to four weeks because of the condition. He had dealt with the tendinitis going back to last season, but the Yankees didn’t realize how serious the matter was until Stanton informed them in February.
During the spring, Stanton received two rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections in each elbow in an attempt to accelerate the healing process. Surgery was viewed as a last resort. (However, if the Yankees had known about Stanton’s condition earlier in the offseason, the team might have encouraged that option, which would have sidelined him for three months.)
Stanton was moved to the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster for outfielder Bryan De La Cruz, who was placed on waivers by the Atlanta Braves in mid-April. De La Cruz was assigned to the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate, but could soon be recalled to the majors as a right-handed bat to pair with Jasson Domínguez in left field.
De La Cruz, 28, played 16 games with the Braves this season and batted .192 with a .453 OPS in 50 plate appearances. With Triple-A Gwinnett, he hit .200 with a .481 OPS in 43 plate appearances. He hit 19 home runs in 2023 for the Miami Marlins, then followed that up with 21 homers combined with the Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates last year.
More importantly for the Yankees, De La Cruz has a career .267/.311/.386 slash average versus left-handed pitching compared to Domínguez’s .100/.239/.150 average in such matchups.
No timeline has been set for Stanton’s return and the move to the 60-day IL won’t change that. The earliest that he could now return from the IL is May 24. The Yankees, however, didn’t expect him to be activated until mid-June after a two-month ramp-up process that would include a minor league rehab assignment.
Stanton batted .233 with a .773 OPS, 27 home runs, 20 doubles and 72 RBI in 114 games last season. He also had an excellent postseason, hitting seven home runs with a 1.048 OPS.
Read the full article here
