Craig Carton's response to Giancarlo Stanton injury is only start of Yankees WFAN torment

There's been nothing new regarding Giancarlo Stanton's elbow injuries. Dating back to 2024, Yankees fans were aware this was going to be a problem for the remaining of his tenure with the team. But Stanton's comments about being unable to "open a bag of chips" due to his condition riled up fans because two weeks ago manager Aaron Boone said the slugger was "great" and a "full go" for spring training.

The way Stanton was sold to us as the team arrived to Tampa was the point of frustration — not the elbow tendinitis (same goes for the Cam Schlittler situation). That's an important bit to clarify since the Yankees' beat got particularly bent out of shape as Stanton's quote made its rounds.

And, really, the anger should be directed to lazy, inflammatory takes, like the one Craig Carton offered on WFAN Thursday, calling Stanton "soft" because of all the injuries he's suffered.

Newsflash! Suffering injuries doesn't make you soft. That's just sometimes how life goes unfortunately. If we wanted to characterize "soft" here, it would be Stanton not playing through those injuries if he had the capability to do so. But he is. And he did when he carried the Yankees to the World Series in 2024. He did last year too when he registered a .944 OPS in 77 games as a driving force in the lineup from mid-June until the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs.

If we wanted to characterize Stanton's injury woes, we'd probably call the situation "unlucky" or "bizarre", if anything. Calling one of the greatest power hitters of all time "soft" is nonsense high school locker room talk that even feels a bit beneath WFAN.

Giancarlo Stanton injury mocked by WFAN's Craig Carton in Yankees rant

To an extent, we get it. WFAN exists for entertainment value and little else. Carton's (second) return to the radio station after departing for Fox Sports 1 (which later canceled his show) pretty much epitomizes that. His first return came after he was found guilty and served prison time for fraud.

There's no doubting his initial 10-year run at WFAN with Boomer & Carton soaring atop the charts, but now? This is just boring. Not funny. And the fact that his return kicked Sal Licata and Brandon Tierney off the air really feels like a sort of injustice right about now if this is the type of content New York fans are going to be subjected to.

It's obvious that this is also a gimmick. Carton is far from dead serious here. But why is this the product? If there's a "comedic" segment to anything WFAN does, it's not crazy to think it can be better than this.

And on top of that, for as frustrating as Giancarlo Stanton's tenure with the Yankees has been, he's always handled himself with class despite getting piled on by fans and the media in years past. He's the best postseason performer this team has had during the Aaron Judge era.

Nobody deserves to get mocked by a radio station's money-grab, especially somebody of Stanton's stature. Unfortunately, this might just be the beginning. If you thought WFAN was bad over the last few years, then you could be in for a shock in 2026 and beyond.