Beneath this cynical, empirically motivated exterior, I’m really a giant softie. As such, I like it when an previous man turns again the clock and rediscovers the magic one final time. Nearly a decade in the past, Giancarlo Stanton was the proto-Aaron Decide: A participant who was larger and stronger than any outfielder we’d ever seen, and able to hitting the ball a lot more durable than anybody else within the league.
Stanton got here of age simply as Statcast made exit velocity public data, although his 2017 season — the height of his stardom — was spectacular sufficient by the metrics Henry Chadwick scrawled on a cave wall 15,000 years in the past. These numbers: 59 house runs, 123 runs scored, 132 RBI, a .631 slugging proportion. Small marvel Stanton was named the MVP of the Nationwide League that 12 months.
And everyone knows what got here subsequent. The commerce to New York — or moderately, given the Marlins’ proclivities on the time, the commerce of Stanton’s record-setting contract to New York. The Yankees are not any stranger to highly effective duos in the course of the lineup, however the Stanton-Decide Neo-Bash Brothers act by no means bought a full listening to. Decide was hampered by damage in 2018, and Stanton performed simply 41 video games in 2019 and 2020 mixed due to accidents to his biceps, shoulder, knee, quadriceps, and hamstring.
By the point he performed his subsequent full season in 2021, Stanton was 31 years previous and beginning to break down. He was participant that 12 months — 35 homers, a 138 wRC+, 3.0 WAR — however not the franchise icon he had been in Miami. Within the three seasons since, it’s been extra of the identical. Age progresses, that massive physique slows down, and nagging accidents chip away at him like eroding desert sands on the Nice Sphinx.
What’s Stanton now? Effectively, for the previous three seasons he’s been good for a median of 27 house runs in 108 video games a 12 months. He’s as discriminating a swinger as Joey Votto, and he’s all the time carried a strikeout charge commensurate together with his uncooked energy. However now, that stroll charge is into the only digits and the strikeout charge is up over 30%. This season, Stanton’s dash velocity was within the third percentile, and if he didn’t personal a mitt we’d by no means know as a result of he hasn’t performed an inning within the outfield since September 2023.
Stanton is all bat, and nothing however the bat at this level in his profession. Not wishing to be unkind, the outcomes depart so much to be desired. Over the previous three seasons, Stanton has hit .212/.291/.454, which is a wRC+ of 106. That’s hardly late-career Albert Pujols territory, but additionally: These Yankees usually are not these Angels. They’d need extra from a full-time DH making $32 million this 12 months.
However even now, there’s one factor Stanton can do. A month earlier than he turns 35, with virtually 7,000 main league plate appearances behind him and an damage historical past that sounds just like the lyrics to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes,” Stanton can nonetheless swing a baseball bat more durable than any man alive.
In accordance with Baseball Savant’s bat monitoring leaderboard, Stanton’s common bat velocity on aggressive swings this 12 months was 81.2 miles per hour. That’s not solely the best mark in baseball, it’s the best by an enormous margin. The hole between Stanton and second-place Oneil Cruz is larger than the hole between Cruz and Eleventh-ranked Christopher Morel.
The impression, so to talk, of that ability is gigantic.
Stanton received ALCS MVP on the energy of solely 4 base hits in your complete collection. However all 4 of them had been house runs. Throughout 9 postseason video games, Stanton has 10 hits: 5 house runs, two doubles, and three singles. That’s adequate for a batting common of .294 — good by virtually anybody’s requirements, however not in and of itself noteworthy. Brayan Rocchio hit .333 this postseason, as an illustration, and everybody could have forgotten all about it by Thanksgiving.
What makes Stanton particular — what’s all the time made him particular — is his skill to get probably the most out of his contact. Of Stanton’s 10 base hits, the softest got here off the bat at 96.4 mph. Six of his hits had exit velocities within the 110s. No different group, together with the non-Stanton Yankees, has extra base hits with exit velocities that top this postseason. Amongst hitters with at the least 20 balls in play this postseason, Stanton is second in slugging proportion on contact, first in xSLG, and second in xwOBACON.
And whereas traditionalists won’t love Stanton’s three-true-outcomes fashion, no one can accuse him of not being a well timed hitter this postseason. Stanton drove in at the least one run with eight of these 10 complete hits. 4 of these RBI hits broke a tie; a fifth introduced the Yankees degree in a sport they’d trailed because the second inning. Is {that a} repeatable ability? Not likely. However you win ALCS MVP by making your hits depend.
Baseball followers are inclined to have an excellent appreciation for historical past and a proclivity for schmaltz and nostalgia. However the sport itself is cruel and unsentimental. Sooner or later, you’re the most effective hitters in baseball, on observe to hit 600 and even 700 house runs earlier than all is claimed and finished. The following, you’re an afterthought.
However generally, gamers like Stanton get a reprieve. Truly, many nice hitters do. Ted Williams had one final run at .400 at age 38. Pujols bought his farewell tour. Votto reinvented himself for a 36-homer marketing campaign at age 37, after he’d appeared cooked for years earlier than. Is Stanton doing the identical now?
Or is that this merely a reminder of what has all the time been? The sport has modified profoundly over the previous 15 years, and so has Stanton himself. It’s simple to overlook that — if you put aside the contract, and the accidents, and the collection of earlier disappointments, and being eclipsed completely by Decide and Soto — this man was born to hit the stuffing out of a baseball. He’s all the time been in a position to do this. And so long as pitchers maintain hanging sliders and leaving fastballs up within the zone, he all the time will.