Giancarlo Stanton’s Spring Training Nightmare Continues, Struggles at the Plate Highlight 2023 Issues

Is there any gas left in the tank? That’s the question that has been hovering around the mind of Giancarlo Stanton. The 34-year-old Yankee had his career’s worst season in 2023. While injuries have always played spoilsport for him, last year was the first time there was a clear decline in his overall hitting technique. So it was clear that things had to change, however, even after slimming down – there’s something still missing in Stanton’s play.

The former MVP’s struggles with fastballs have slowly become more profound. So has the fact that he’s grown visibly slower in recent years. But then Stanton still possesses immense power, only now it isn’t coming to his use anymore. This Spring Training has raised an important question for the New York Yankees slugger. A question he needs to find an answer to quicker than ever.

Giancarlo Stanton’s downward spiral continues in preseason 

Here’s Stanton’s 2023 in a nutshell – he hit 24 homers and had 60 runs in just 101 games. Sounds good, right? However, his batting average was just .191, and he had a mere .695 OPS. That isn’t good at all. That’s why the slugger decided to lose some of his bulk and become a leaner and meaner hitter. While that did raise some hopes, his 1-15 record quashed those hopes this Spring Training.

That’s right, in 15 at-bats, Stanton has hit a grand total of 1 hit. The star has been struck out thrice and was walked off the plate once. So as of now, Stanton’s slash looks like this – .067/.176/.067/.243 (via Baseball Reference). That’s some scary stuff for a hitter who was the MVP a couple of years ago. So is this a continuation of Stanton’s previous bad form, or is it the usual Spring Training jitters?

According to NJ Media, the Yankees skipper Aaron Boone still believes the slugger. “And (Stanton) I feel is not chasing or anything. They’re (Stanton and LeMahieu) very process-driven and want to work on particular things in a game, especially G,” said Boone.

Read more: Giancarlo Stanton’s Openness to Outfield Role Provides Yankees Malleable Depth

So even after bad performances, the Yankees are still all in on Stanton. To his credit, even the star is working hard to get back to his best. Recently, he spent close to 90 minutes inside the batting cage.

The Yankees star continues his struggle to regain lost form

AP News reported, on Tuesday, the Yankees slugger spent 1.5 hours in front of a pitching machine. While DJ LeMahieu joined him for 20 minutes, Stanton went solo after it. “If I don’t get my work in, then I’m just thinking about it all day. So there’s no point in being at home just thinking about doing this anyway,” Stanton said. That batting practice showed quite a few positive signs.

The biggest one was that Stanton was able to hit opposite-field home runs to the right field at the dying moment of his batting practice. This could be the signal that slowly Stanton is regaining his lost confidence. There might still be something left in Stanton’s tank. Hopefully, it’ll show itself sooner rather than later.

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