TAMPA, Fla. — Giancarlo Stanton walked toward the batting cage Wednesday afternoon with a bat tucked under his arm. When a reporter from NJ.com approached to ask how he was feeling, Stanton stopped, looked up and answered with a crooked smile and no words.
The silence said enough. Another full offseason of rest did not heal the tennis elbow that has plagued both of his arms since 2024. And based on what the Yankees slugger shared next, the daily reality of this condition is far more severe than most Yankees fans realize.
Stanton’s pain extends well beyond the batter’s box
New York Yankees
When asked if the offseason rest had helped, Stanton did not sugarcoat the situation.
“That’ll never be the case,” he said softly. “Not while I’m in this line of work. You have your good days and bad days, just like your mood and everything.”
Then came the comment that turned heads across baseball.
That admission paints a picture of a player who is fighting through constant discomfort just to perform basic tasks, let alone swing a bat against 97-mph fastballs. Stanton has been among baseball’s leaders in exit velocity for years and recorded a 94.4 mph average exit velocity in 2025. That kind of force puts enormous stress on his elbows every time he makes contact.
Surgery was an option but Stanton rejected it
The Yankees and Stanton chose not to undergo surgery this offseason. Dr. Spencer Stein, a sports orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone Health, told NJ.com last March that the procedure would require only “a couple months recovery” and would involve cleaning out the tendon in both elbows and potentially repairing them.
Stanton disagreed with that assessment.
“You get the surgery and you can go back to being in the general population in a few months, but my job is to put some of the most force into a batted ball,” he said. “That’s not going to be fixed in surgery, and I don’t care what any doctor says because they don’t know what’s going on. What’s written about my elbows is what me and the Yankees give you.”
It was a candid moment from a player who rarely makes excuses. Stanton believes the nature of his job, generating elite bat speed and exit velocity on a nightly basis, makes surgery an insufficient fix. The condition will persist as long as he keeps swinging.
The numbers prove Stanton can still produce through the pain
Last season, Giancarlo Stanton missed the Yankees’ first 70 games while rehabbing the elbow. He did not play his first game until June 16. But once he got into the lineup, he was one of the most productive hitters in baseball.
From 6/1 to end of season, Giancarlo Stanton had a 158 wRC+. 10th highest in MLB. pic.twitter.com/pkGCRAY90Z
In 77 games, Stanton slashed .273/.350/.594 with a .944 OPS and 24 home runs. His 11.7 plate appearances per home run matched the rate of his 2017 NL MVP season, when he hit 59 home runs with the Marlins. His .994 OPS was the second highest of his career, trailing only his 1.007 mark from that MVP year. His .273 batting average was his best since 2021.
“That doesn’t matter,” Stanton said of those numbers. “The key is get in the box. My last year overall numbers were low. I want a full season.”
Boone calls Stanton the poster child of mental toughness
Aaron Boone did not hold back when describing what Stanton endures on a daily basis.
“For me, he’s the poster child of mentally tough,” Boone said. “I don’t know how else to say it. It’s true: Poster child.”
Stanton was not sure the public sees him that way. “The outlook would be that I wouldn’t be mentally tough because I’ve missed games,” he said.
The availability numbers tell their own story. During his seven seasons with the Yankees, Stanton has appeared in only 56.4% of the team’s 1,032 regular-season games. He has been sidelined by hamstring injuries, oblique strains and the ongoing elbow pain. He has played more than 115 games only once since arriving in pinstripes in 2018.
The Yankees are managing Stanton carefully this spring
Stanton has sat out the Yankees’ first six Grapefruit League games and will likely miss at least four more. He and Boone are targeting a spring debut around March 3, when Jose Caballero and the Panama WBC team visit Steinbrenner Field. That would give the Yankees slugger roughly two weeks of game action before Opening Day in San Francisco on March 25.
In the meantime, Stanton has been hitting in the cages, facing live pitching during batting practice and taking occasional reps in right and left field. The Yankees believe two weeks of regular at-bats will be enough to get him ready.
During the regular season, Stanton will receive scheduled rest days to keep him productive and healthy. Boone acknowledged the balancing act.
“No doubt, no doubt,” Boone said. “We did that last year. There were days he was playing where it was tough for him, but he wanted in there. There are other days he wanted to be in there and I’d say, ‘We have to stay disciplined to this because you’re so critical to us.'”
Stanton is baseball’s active home run leader with 453. He needs 47 more to join the 500 Club. His 18 postseason home runs across 44 games with the Yankees are tied for 10th most in baseball history.
He knows what is at stake. He is playing through pain because he wants to be in the Yankees lineup. And he wants to win a World Series.
“There’s certain things you just can’t do without help,” Stanton said. “You just get your mind off it and go get ’em.”
But pain triggers fears of injury sapping his full season potential.
