Did the Yankees miss Giancarlo Stanton?
That depends. He seems well-liked by his teammates, and they are paying him $26 million to play baseball this season. The former MVP also is one of the game's most intimidating power hitters, so he's a nice bat to have on your side.
But did you ever watch the Yankees in his absence thinking, man, if only they had Stanton in the lineup? Probably not.
It's not a knock on him. More a credit to what the Yankees were able to do during his 10-week stay on the injured list. And with Aaron Judge sitting out two of those months as well.
At the time of Stanton's Tuesday return, the AL East-leading Yankees already were 17 games over .500 (44-27) and had enjoyed at least a share of first place for 28 of the previous 30 days. Not a bad run so far, with a roster pieced together by Brian Cashman's resourcefulness and piloted by a more savvy Aaron Boone in his second year at the helm.
Could the Backup Bombers have continued this pace minus Stanton and Judge, or without the trade for Encarnacion? Cashman didn't want to find out. Eventually, fairy tales have an expiration date, and the Yankees don't do the Cinderella thing.
Starting Tuesday, Stanton brings what he always does, home runs and strikeouts. Later this week, Judge will do the same. During a season where baseballs are jumping, it only stands to reason these two could inflict more destruction, as even minimal contact, made by players this strong, should result in an uptick in homers. And Encarnacion is now on board to further rattle opposing pitchers.
"We were already dangerous and now it's another icing to the cake," Stanton said. "We got to build this together. Once we're all on full force, it's going to be a lot of fun."
It's not like the Yankees were suffering all that much from an offensive standpoint. Before Tuesday, they had been averaging 5.38 runs, which ranked fifth in the majors, and were hitting 1.59 homers per game _ well above this year's wildly-inflated MLB rate of 1.35 (it was 1.15 a year ago).
There is one area, however, that the Yankees have particularly thrived in. As of Tuesday, their .281 batting average was second in the majors _ second only to the Rockies (.294). The Yankees finished 12th in that category last season, hitting .253. The winter signing of DJ LeMahieu has provided a big boost, as he entered Tuesday night batting an MLB-best .459 (28-for-61) in those situations.
That positive trend won't necessarily end with the returns of more all-or-nothing bats like Stanton and Judge, but they certainly don't profile as pure-contact hitters. Their game is punishingly-hard contact, which has its advantages, too. But with all this renewed long-ball conversation, an interesting item in the Yankees' pregame notes caught our attention Tuesday. These are info packages provided by the team's own PR staff, and this one pointed out how the Yankees had homered in 20 consecutive games _ the second-longest streak in franchise history (the record is 25, from 1941).
On top of that, the note mentioned how the streak was put together "despite Encarnacion, Judge and Stanton combining to play in only one game" during it. The one game, of course, was Monday's debut by Encarnacion, who went 0-for-3 in the Yankees' 3-0 victory over the Rays.
Another intriguing stat: the Yankees were 25-3 when hitting at least two homers in a game, second in the majors to the Astros (30-3). Stanton and Judge should pump up those numbers a bit, while providing a trickle-down benefit to the rest of the lineup. But it's not like the Yankees have been begging for help. Stanton could see that from his rehab posts in Tampa and Scranton.
"Just having great at-bats," Stanton said. "Making it tough on these pitchers. They're throwing everything at them _ openers, all different types of things _ and we're just wearing them down and making them make big decisions and mistakes. That's what happens when you wear pitchers down. They make mistakes. They get tired. And that's what we've been doing (to them)."
We expect the Yankees to continue to do that. Some early rust for Stanton and Judge is inevitable after such long layoffs, but this pinstriped machine will motor on, in a more explosive, bulldozing style that we haven't seen in a while.
"We have guys who can do damage," Aaron Boone said. "We feel we've assembled a group that's very good at getting on base and slugging. That's a recipe for a lot of runs."
Presumably more with Stanton. He's No. 27, in case you forgot.
