There is a lot that can be said about the George
Steinbrenner era of New York Yankees baseball, but one thing that could not be
said is that the team did not tend to always get their man. If the Yankees
needed a first baseman they went out and got the best first baseman available
each and every time. Need a pitcher? A few days after the determination was
made prospects were being shipped out the door and a fresh new arm was headed
to the Bronx. It was where the “Get Greedy” mantra began, and we got a glimpse
of the past this winter when Brian Cashman and son of the Boss, Hal
Steinbrenner, acquired reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami
Marlins. Stanton has started his Yankees tenure off slower than expected, but
he isn’t the first big time Yankees slugger to be acquired only to have a slow
start to his Big Apple career. Let’s compare.
We all as Yankees fans know that there have been a few key acquisitions that started awfully slow, but ultimately rebounded to have good first seasons in New York and career's with the Yankees. That list of names includes Alex Rodriguez who was acquired in a trade with the Texas Rangers, Jason Giambi who was signed as a free agent from the Oakland Athletics and Johnny Damon who was signed as a free agent after leaving the Boston Red Sox. Does their past give us hope for Giancarlo Stanton's future?
Alex Rodriguez
2003 w/ TEX: .298/.396/.600/.995 with 47 HR and 118 RBI
2004 w/ NYY: .286/.375/.512/.888 with 36 HR and 106 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .283/.378/.523/.900 with 351 HR and 1096 RBI
(12 seasons)
Jason Giambi
2001 w/ OAK: .342/.477/.660/1.137 with 38 HR and 128 RBI
2002 w/ NYY: .314/.435/.598/1.034 with 41 HR and 122 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .260/.404/.521/.925 with 209 HR and 604 RBI
(7 seasons)
Johnny Damon
2005 w/ BOS: .316/.366/.439/.805 with 20 HR and 94 RBI
2006 w/ NYY: .285/.359/.482/.841 with 24 HR and 80 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .285/.363/.458/.821 with 77 HR and 296 RBI (4
seasons)
Giancarlo Stanton
2017 w/ MIA: .281/.376/.631/1.007 with 59 HR and 132 RBI
2018 w/ NYY: .227/.313/.455/.768 with 7 HR and 19 RBI (34
games)
Career w/ NYY: Stay tuned
As you can see a slow start or even a bad season to begin
their tenures do not always spell the end or doomsday for these players.
Stanton has plenty of contract left and an immense amount of talent to showcase
before his Yankees tenure is in the books. I wasn’t worried when Alex
Rodriguez, Jason Giambi or Johnny Damon got off to slower starts than you would
like, and I am not worried about Stanton’s slow start either. We will try and
revisit this post in October, that will be more telling than his stats as we
entered the week here in May.
I said all that to say this, some fans need to just calm the
hell down.
All stats courtesy of and thanks to Baseball Reference.