TAMPA, Fla. — A year ago at this time, Giancarlo Stanton could barely lift a bat. Tendinitis in both elbows had turned the simplest baseball activities into painful exercises. He missed all of spring training and did not make his season debut until June 16.
That version of Stanton feels like ancient history now.
The 36-year-old slugger stepped into the batter’s box Tuesday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field and reminded everyone what he looks like when healthy. He went 1-for-2 with a walk, tagged up from third to score on a sacrifice fly and launched a screaming single that left his bat at 114.3 mph in the Yankees’ 11-1 rout of Team Panama.
It was, by every measure, exactly the kind of afternoon the Yankees needed from their designated hitter.
A year of difference in Tampa
The contrast between this spring and last could not be sharper. In 2025, Giancarlo Stanton reported to camp with tennis elbow that dated back to the second half of the 2024 season. He had played through it during the postseason, earning ALCS MVP honors against Cleveland, but the pain caught up with him.
His daily routine last spring consisted mostly of physical conditioning and treatment. He could not take part in normal baseball work. The Yankees did not put him into a single Grapefruit League game before shutting him down.
This year, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Stanton arrived in Tampa ready to go. He has done all of his prescribed daily work without restriction. That includes extensive sessions in the indoor batting cages, where he has done the majority of his swing work for years, along with live batting practice and reps on the Trajekt pitching machine, which replicates the speed and movement of real big league pitchers.
“Different entirely,” Stanton said when comparing this camp to last year. “It’s good that I could have a normal spring where it’s like, I have a game, what did I like? What didn’t I like? OK, then go immediately to make the adjustments or save it for tomorrow or a day off, and you know exactly what you’re going to do and see if that work carries over to the next day. So you’re like, practice, work, practice, work. Was it efficient? If not, change it. You’ve got until the season opener March 25. That’s good.”
Stanton calls it a prototype first day
Stanton struck out on a full count in his first plate appearance during the first inning. The swing-and-misses did not bother him. He was on time. The feel was there.
In the fourth inning, he stepped in against Panama right-hander Erian Rodriguez and yanked a 94 mph sinker to left field on a 1-0 count. The exit velocity of 114.3 mph ranked as the 12th-hardest ball hit across the majors this spring. He walked on a 3-2 pitch in his third plate appearance in the fifth and was lifted for a pinch-runner.
“A little bit of everything,” Stanton said. “Scored, tagged up, ran the bases. A nice prototype first day I’d say.”
The exit velocity number itself did not matter much to him. What mattered was the quality of contact. “Just squaring up a heater tells me where I’m at, more than miles per hour,” Stanton said. “Pulling a heater, it’s good. Good timing, good adjustment from a couple swing-throughs or foul-offs with heaters at-bat one and three. There’s still the seesaw that’s normal right now.”
No excuses, just results
Stanton has never been one to ask for patience. When he returned from the injured list last June, he did not treat it as a ramp-up period. He hit .273 with 24 home runs and a .944 OPS in 77 games. He routinely ranks in the top 10 in exit velocity across the majors. In 2025, he recorded the sixth-hardest hit ball of the season at 118.0 mph, per BaseballSavant.com.
Asked Tuesday how many at-bats he needed this spring to feel ready, Stanton was blunt. “Last year I had about six, so more than that,” he said. He was undershooting the 12 plate appearances he actually logged on a rehab assignment before joining the Yankees last season.
“You can’t look at it as, ‘Give me time to settle in,’ or whatever,” Stanton said. “You got to come in and make an impact. I just tried to be impactful right away, not worry about, ‘Hey, I only had this.’ Whatever. No one cares. Get it done.”
That mentality is a big reason why Stanton commands respect in the Yankees clubhouse. His teammates see someone who refuses to make excuses, even when he would have every right to.
“He’s just a great leader,” Max Fried said. “He’s someone that is very knowledgeable about the game. You’re not that good for that long just by accident. He has the physical tools but the mental game and the way he approaches it is extremely high-level.”
Boone maps out the plan from here
The Yankees eased Stanton into game action this spring. They had him work behind the scenes and on the backfields for the first week-plus of Grapefruit League play. The goal, as always with Stanton, is keeping him as healthy and fresh as possible over the long haul.
Stanton has consistently said the elbow pain is not going away as long as he keeps playing. He described it last spring as a matter of pain tolerance, likely for the rest of his career. But it has reached a manageable level, and nothing about his workload has been curtailed this spring.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone liked what he saw Tuesday.
“I thought he had some good swings,” Boone said. “I thought even in the strikeout at-bat, I thought he looked good, he was on time for things. Good day, good to get him three at-bats there.”
Boone said Stanton is slated to play in most of the remaining home games. That schedule would give him roughly 30 to 35 at-bats before Opening Day on March 25. His next game is expected to be Thursday at home against the Twins.
Fried, who made his own spring debut Tuesday and allowed one hit and three walks over three scoreless innings, saw Stanton’s rocket single up close. He was not surprised. “It’s nothing new. We’ve been seeing it all spring,” Fried said. “He’s been hitting the ball hard all spring. He looks great.”
Stanton also had a message for those who read too much into a viral report last week about his elbow pain.
“Nothing, at the end of the day, is like seeing a live arm,” Stanton said. “Just being in a position in a game, fans, that extra — you can’t simulate it. You can visualize, but until you do it, it’s different.”
He did it Tuesday. And the Yankees can breathe a little easier because of it.
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