How Giancarlo Stanton can be Yankees' fourth Hall of Famer after Aaron Boone's take

In accordance with Old-Timers' Day, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone shared that he believes his current roster could end up with four eventual inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite battling a stigma of underperformance in recent years.

And, you know what? He's right, though the group is probably maxed out at four, pending an Anthony Volpe surge into Bobby Witt Jr.'s stratosphere or a Tim Mayzassaince.

It's a bit jarring to mull over that reality, considering the Dynasty Yankees are stuck, Cooperstown-wise. The Core Four seems likely to be cut off at two inductees (Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter).Bernie Williams, the Fifth Beatle, deserves election, but will need a jolt down the line to receive it (as well as Kenny Lofton's induction). Roger Clemens should make it in by Barry Bonds' side, but that could take forever. The 2024 Yankees are really going to double up the '96-'00 crew?

Well, not literally, because of Tim Raines and Wade Boggs, but you see the point here.

Aaron Judge, once thought of as a player who started too old and missed too much time in his prime to be elected, is working hard towards dissolving those criticisms, putting up campaigns too historic for the voters to ignore. Juan Soto, still somehow just 25 years old, has a long way to go before putting his stamp on a Cooperstonian finish line, but his current trajectory looks rock solid. Gerrit Cole isn't a first-ballot lock, but at 150-77, the pieces are coming together. Combined with a strong back half (hopefully in pinstripes), he looks to have enough mystique and countables to fuel election.

And then there's the fourth: Giancarlo Stanton, whose case looked dead in the water during the summer of 2022 and 2023, but whose 2024 surge has reignited hope that he can reach the big, looming number that'll make his case undeniable: 500 home runs.

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton can make Baseball Hall of Fame only if he reaches 500 home run milestone

Favored by most to peter out further after '23, when he both missed 61 games and posted an 87 OPS+ when he did play, Stanton has bounced back and avoided a major drop-off in production following his midsummer injury.

His Monument Park shot on Sunday afternoon, the third in a back-to-back-to-back flurry, represented the 425th of his career and the 23rd of his season. Even in the dregs of '23, his power never disappeared; his 24 home runs still represented stardom's pace. It was just hard to believe that he'd be able to cobble together even two or three more years of healthy production, let alone well-above-average jolts.

If Stanton sticks around for the equivalent of three more full seasons after 2024, he should be able to pass 500 home runs, a Hall of Fame signifier that was once devalued by steroids, but actually hasn't been broached since David Ortiz in 2015 (an accomplishment which ... somehow wasn't devalued by steroids, in the eyes of the Hall's voters).

No clean superstar has ever passed the mark and failed to be approved by the Hall's voting board, and while Stanton's ascent felt unlikely in the spring, it's now difficult to rule him out, as he passes 425 before the age of 35.