Latest Yankees-Giancarlo Stanton trade discourse has fully gone off the rails

It's hard to have a rational conversation about Giancarlo Stanton nowadays. New York Yankees fans can't believe how bad/injured he's been, and also can't believe that his contract actively affected the team's pursuit of so many other star players that objectively would've been better fits (or, simply, just great extra add-ons!).

What's done is done, though. As much as Yankees fans want to go back in time and dangle Brian Cashman off the top of a random building in his Grinch suit and demand a Bryce Harper signing, we have to live with what we have right now.

That means coming to terms with Stanton's reality. He's a Yankee. He is under contract through 2027. He will be clogging up the payroll whether he's physically in New York or not. Why? Because the man has a no-trade clause, and even if he is traded, no sane team out there will take on all of his money.

But people seem to think it'll be a whole lot easier for the Yankees to rid themselves of Stanton than it actually is. Again, that is an oft-injured DH who can barely play defense and cannot run entering his age-34 season.

On Thursday's episode of "Foul Territory," the crew presented a silly tweet from Gary Sheffield Jr. (who has a ton of even sillier ones than this) demanding the Yankees cut ties with Stanton as their first order of business this offseason.

Latest Yankees-Giancarlo Stanton trade discourse has fully gone off the rails

Not only did Sheffield Jr. present that possibility as a relatively seamless one, but former Yankee (!!) Erik Kratz took things a step further and claimed 25 (TWENTY-FIVE) teams wouldn't hesitate to strike a deal for Stanton, referencing the slugger's first half of 2022 as if that would make a difference in any negotiations.

The problem is that Stanton's always injured! It's not that he can't play baseball (even though his skills are certainly on the decline). No team -- contender, mid-market, small-market -- would take on $98 million of Stanton's money (it's really $128 million, but the Marlins still have to cover $30 million) for an additional four seasons after they just saw his worst career campaign by far.

Teams are shelling out those kinds of AAVs to frontline starting pitchers, not aging DHs who make the lineup less flexible and strike out 28% of the time.

This is nothing against Stanton. It's not his fault he's frequently injured. It's not his fault the Yankees traded for him. It's not his fault Hal Steinbrenner decided to stop spending after his acquisition. It's not his problem the Yankees wasted no time moving him away from being a full-time player on both sides of the ball.

But the situation is currently this. Stanton controls where he goes. The money attached to him limits his potential destinations. The Yankees' way of doing business (refusal to eat money or trade prospects to get other teams to take on more money) makes it all the more difficult.

Not only would no more that three teams actually entertain a deal for Stanton, but the Yankees have so many other needs and deficiencies that this would hardly crack the top-five action items on their offseason to-do list.