Yankees' new Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge injury updates won't clarify trade deadline

While the New York Yankees plot their final trade deadline moves - if Brian Cashman and the front office know what's good for them - a potentially intriguing Giancarlo Stanton showcase will be occurring on the field at Yankee Stadium. Or it ... might not be interesting at all. There's a very important clarifier at play here that the Yankees' media has been unable to nail down so far.

Stanton, according to reports, will be participating in live batting practice sessions against a rehabbing Carlos Rodón on Monday afternoon, followed by a Clarke Schmidt session on Tuesday (Schmidt, conveniently, may be a member of another club by then, entering his final year of team control post-rehab and finding himself dangled as a trade target). Though Aaron Boone acknowledged Stanton's participation, he couldn't say with certainty whether he'd swing the bat or merely stand in the box and approximate the role of a crash test dummy.

Boone did say Stanton has “in position to probably do that now for a little bit," but he couldn't confirm whether it would or would not happen. He was far less testy with the media this time around. Tack on the Aaron Judge update that Boone gave - still no reimaging date, which means no strength training, upper body work, or baseball activities - and it sounds like Stanton may return before Judge, but neither should be counted on in any sort of trade deadline calculus.

How Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge injury updates should affect Yankees' trade deadline

Stanton was supposed to be out just a few days when his calf was first strained in April jogging between second and third base. Since then, he's built himself up almost to the point of return, then suffered a second strain that eliminated him from the depth chart. While Judge's rumored thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis never came to pass, nothing we've heard since has been good news. It will still be an uphill battle for him to make it back before the postseason (or play effectively).

The Yankees' offense has dovetailed since mid-June, squandering a recent run of sterling starting pitching in historic fashion. No potential trade deadline additions can even approximate the level of contributions of a healthy Judge/Stanton, but even if the improvements are incremental, the team simply has to move. They can't afford to ignore the elephants in the room, all of whom are occupying six of the nine lineup spots on any given day. Judge and Stanton might be bonuses. Might be. But they won't be anything more.

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