Don’t let Giancarlo Stanton appearance distract you from Yankees’ writing on the wall

Although the New York Yankees revived their season and swept the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend, plenty of concerns remain. Yes, there's renewed hope, but we have no idea when Aaron Judge will return to the outfield. Max Fried has been dreadful for almost two full months now. And Giancarlo Stanton is ... injured?

The Yankees' hottest hitter didn't start a single game in St. Louis. He got one pinch-hit appearance on Sunday, but that shouldn't change much. Manager Aaron Boone was calling on Stanton to either walk or rope a hit before he was going to take him out anyway.

The team said Stanton was recovering a bit more slowly than expected after playing defense for three straight games against the Minnesota Twins last week from Monday-Wednesday. Stanton has not played defense since 2023.

But the fact both Stanton and Boone were relatively vague regarding the issue speaks to a larger issue: this is how every IL stint begins, especially with Stanton, who has dealt with nebulous soft tissue ailments for years. How many of these updates over the last eight years directly preceded an official injured list diagnosis? Answer: mMany!

His pinch-hit appearance should change nothing. Yankees fans should indeed be concerned about him going on the shelf this week.

Yankees News: Giancarlo Stanton "injury" could loom large for New York

The timing couldn't be worse, too, with the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox on deck. Stanton absolutely kills the Red Sox and will be needed if the Yankees want to flip the script in the AL Wild Card picture. New York has a day off on Monday, but it's unclear if that will do the slugger any good. They also had last Thursday off immediately after the Twins series and that did nothing to help his situation for this past weekend.

With Judge's return to the outfield seemingly in a "wait and see" situation, this means that if the Yankees are going to be "cautious" with Stanton again this week (or if he hits the IL), then one of the team's two best hitters will be out of the lineup and/or we're looking at some unsightly Jasson Dominguez starts in left field. It's a frustrating situation however it shakes out.

The only way this will work is if Stanton is healthy enough to come back and play right field. If that's the case, Boone can be more flexible with the lineup, which has proven to help the Yankees a lot this year. Just over this weekend, Stanton's absence, Cody Bellinger's illness, Paul Goldschmidt's injury, and Anthony Volpe's off day allowed for a healthy rotation where a number of guys were able to get reps in and switch things up.

That said ... Stanton was the team's hottest hitter over the last month, and that's not a piece the Yankees would be content with losing for the sake of flexibility, especially with the Red Sox on deck.

Fingers crossed, but we can't say we're feeling good about it.