Tampa, Fl., — The Yankees have a vacant left field following the departure of Andrew Benintendi. On Friday, New York manager Aaron Boone hinted at considering Giancarlo Stanton for the outfield role.
After the live training session for Yankees pitchers and catchers at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Boone told about Giancarlo Stanton:
“I think he’s going to be our DH more than anyone else, but I hope the outfield is very much in play.”
The Yankees will have their full-squad training starting from Monday and the left field position is one of the top stories that fans want to see unfolding at the spring camp. However, with no fixed player and some fresh faces there, there will be competition. Giancarlo Stanton is certainly a wild card after his manager wants to see him “in the mix in the outfield.”
However, the Yankees need to keep the slugger healthy. They need Giancarlo Stanton to be able to start every day in the outfield either as a designated hitter or in the field.
Giancarlo Stanton started in the outfield for 38 games in 2021 and 26 games in 2022. But most of those starts were in right field, and none of his 14 total starts in the left field happened at Yankee Stadium because the field is so big there.
Boone wouldn’t say whether Giancarlo Stanton could play left field at Yankee Stadium, which he hasn’t done since 2019.
“We’ll see about that,” he said. “And I might get a little creative there, too. We’ll see how that shakes out.”
In the meantime, Aaron Hicks is the favorite to win the left-field job when spring training starts. However, other players, like the versatile Oswaldo Cabrera and Estevan Florial, are expected to play there as well. And the three have an edge there compared to Giancarlo Stanton. Hicks just finished a rough season that ended when he hurt his knee in Game 5 of the ALDS, but Boone thinks he is “in a good place.”
“He’s working on shortening some things up [with his swing], making some adjustments, which are inevitable over the course of a career,” Boone told. “So physically he’s in a good space and I think mentally he’s ready to go and excited to be here to compete.”
Giancarlo Stanton is ready and so is Ron; but Wells is injured
Austin Wells can’t play baseball because he has a bruised rib. He felt pain on his first day of camp, so he went to the doctor.
“There wasn’t any trigger or anything, just kind of out of nowhere was like, ‘That doesn’t feel very good,’ ” Wells said. “But it feels a lot better today. Day by day, it’s getting a lot better. Just trying to be ready to go for when the games start kicking up around here.”
Ron Marinaccio had a good pitching workout again and the pitcher didn’t face any issues. He is still getting stronger after hurting his shin last year, which kept him from making the playoffs. Early next week, the reliever will throw to Yankees hitters. The New York Post quoted him saying:
“I was definitely dealing with as much of the shin pain as I had throughout the season. But I was probably a similar version of myself minus 2 miles an hour.”
On Friday afternoon, Luis Severino, Michael King, and Clarke Schmidt all threw live in the bullpen. King was facing batters for the second time after his injury in July.
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