Nuclear Giancarlo Stanton run has Yankees star making unthinkable MVP case

The New York Yankees have one of the most talented rosters in MLB. For whatever reason, they struggle to put it all together on a consistent basis once we reach June. Interestingly enough, that's what makes Giancarlo Stanton's current run that much more incredible.

Stanton's played in 51 games this season after his campaign was delayed due to injuries in both elbows. The Yankees had gotten off to an incredible start without him in the lineup, but watching him over the last two months has fans wondering where this team would be if he had succumbed to health issues any longer.

He started slow in June as he was getting back up to speed, but ever since July he's arguably been the most important player in baseball. He's been good for 2.0 bWAR and has slugged 17 homers with 46 RBI. Though the Yankees are just 22-29 since he's been back, it could be a lot worse.

In those wins, Stanton is hitting .384 with a 1.442 OPS (and he's still performing very well in losses). It legitimately does not get better than that. As for runners in scoring position, the slugger is batting .354 with a 1.239 OPS and 30 RBI (48 at-bats). It's scary to wonder how many more losses the Yankees would have if this production didn't carry them. On Tuesday night, he drove in all five runs in the Yankees' win over the Nationals.

And that's prompted some discussion surrounding Stanton receiving MVP votes at the end of the year. Is that going to eat into Aaron Judge's candidacy, especially as he continues to struggle in the second half?

Giancarlo Stanton has been the Yankees' MVP during rough 2025 stretch

Judge has the counting stats. His slash line still leads the AL, and he's tops in WAR, runs scored, walks and OPS+. But if Stanton's nuclear run didn't coincide with Judge's slide (since July 5, he's hitting .207/.342/.466), the Yankees might be firmly out of the playoff race with a concerning amount of ground to make up.

What Judge has done (and continues to do) is incredible, but there's no denying Stanton's nightly impact when the team needs it most, and his redemption arc makes his MVP case all the more compelling. This man was the subject of DFA speculation of sorts (at least among the fanbase and some media members) two years ago, and now he's on the hottest run of his career.

He won't have the breadth of success to warrant a real MVP case, but at this rate he's going to steal a few votes from Judge and Shohei Ohtani if he can maintain a semblance of this production through the end of the year. When we look back on this season if the Yankees manage to do anything of note, Stanton's dominance will be most remembered as what saved the team from disaster.

Between his postseason run last year and the fact he rose from the dead after a -0.8 bWAR season in 2023, Stanton's established himself as a team legend. He's stepped in to play defense (after two years away from the outfield) to save the Yankees during Judge's injury and he's only gotten better offensively while the rest of the team (mostly) disappears into the shadows.

He won't be your AL MVP. But some voters will give him a nod. And Yankees fans will be tipping their caps knowing he led by example and rose to the occasion in a clutch manner that hasn't been exemplified since Derek Jeter wore pinstripes.