Return of the mighty Giancarlo Stanton

Underneath this cynical, empirically motivated exterior, I'm actually a big softie. That's why I love it when an old man turns back time and rediscovers magic one last time. Nearly a decade ago, Giancarlo Stanton was the proto-Aaron Judge: a player who was bigger and stronger than any outfielder we'd ever seen, and who was able to hit the ball much harder than anyone else in the league .

Stanton came of age when Statcast made exit velocity public, although his 2017 season — the height of his fame — was impressive enough given the numbers Henry Chadwick scrawled on a cave wall 15,000 years ago. These numbers: 59 home runs, 123 runs scored, 132 RBI, a .631 slugging percentage. No wonder Stanton was named National League MVP that year.

And we all know what came next. The trade to New York — or rather, given the Marlins' leanings at the time, the trade of Stanton's record Contract to New York. The Yankees are no strangers to powerhouse duos in the middle of the lineup, but the Stanton-Judge Neo-Bash Brothers' performance never got a full hearing. Judge was hampered by injury in 2018, and Stanton played in just 41 total games in 2019 and 2020 due to biceps, shoulder, knee, quadriceps and hamstring injuries.

By the time he played his next full season in 2021, Stanton was 31 and starting to break down. He was a good player that year — 35 homers, 138 wRC+, 3.0 WAR — but not the franchise icon he had been in Miami. In the three seasons since, it's been the same. Age advances, this gigantic body slows down, and agonizing injuries wear away like eroding desert sand on the Great Sphinx.

What is Stanton now? Well, over the past three seasons he has averaged 27 home runs in 108 games per year. He's as demanding a swingman as Joey Votto and his strikeout rate always matches his raw power. But now the walk rate is in the single digits and the strikeout rate is up over 30%. This season, Stanton's sprint speed was in the third percentile, and if he didn't own a mitt, we would never know since he hasn't pitched an inning in the outfield since September 2023.

Stanton is just a hitter at this point in his career and nothing more than the hitter. Not to be unkind, the results leave a lot to be desired. Over the past three seasons, Stanton has hit .212/.291/.454, for a wRC+ of 106. That's not Albert Pujols' late-career territory, but also: These Yankees are not those Angels. They would want more from a full-time DH making $32 million this year.

But even now, there's one thing Stanton can do. A month shy of his 35th birthday, with nearly 7,000 major league appearances under his belt and an injury history that sounds like the lyrics to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes,” Stanton can still swing a baseball bat harder than any man alive .

According to Baseball Savant's bat tracking leaderboard, Stanton's average bat speed in competitive swings this year was 81.2 mph. That's not just the highest mark in baseball, it's the highest by far. The gap between Stanton and second-place finisher Oneil Cruz is greater than the gap between Cruz and 11th-place finisher Christopher Morel.

The impact of this ability is enormous, so to speak.

Stanton was named ALCS MVP due to just four base hits in the entire series. But all four were home runs. In nine postseason games, Stanton had ten hits: five home runs, two doubles and three singles. That's good enough for a .294 batting average – good by almost any measure, but not remarkable in and of itself. Brayan Rocchio, for example, hit .333 this postseason, and everyone will have forgotten all about it by Thanksgiving.

What makes Stanton special – what has always made him special – is his ability to get the most out of his contacts. Of Stanton's 10 base hits, the softest came at a speed of 96.4 mph. Six of his hits had exit velocities in the 110 range. No other team, including the non-Stanton Yankees, has more base hits with such high exit velocities this postseason. Among hitters with at least 20 balls in play this postseason, Stanton ranks second in slugging percentage on contact, first in xSLG and second in xwOBACON.

And while traditionalists may not like Stanton's three-truth-outcome style, no one can blame him for not being a contemporary hitter this postseason. Stanton drove in at least one run on eight of those 10 total hits. Four of those RBI hits broke a tie; a fifth hit tied the Yankees in a game in which they had been trailing since the second inning. Is this a repeatable skill? Not really. But you become ALCS MVP by making your hits count.

Baseball fans tend to have a great appreciation for history and a penchant for schmaltz and nostalgia. But the sport itself is merciless and unsentimental. One day you'll be one of the best hitters in baseball and on your way to hitting 600 or even 700 home runs before it's all said and done. The next minute you're an afterthought.

But sometimes players like Stanton get a reprieve. In fact, many great hitters do this. Ted Williams had one last run at .400 at age 38. Pujols got his farewell tour. Votto reinvented himself for a 36-homer campaign at age 37 after looking fit for years before. Is Stanton doing the same thing now?

Or is this just a reminder of what has always been? The game has changed fundamentally in the last 15 years, and Stanton himself has changed too. When you ignore the contract, the injuries, the string of previous disappointments, and the fact that he was completely overshadowed by Judge and Soto, it's easy to forget that this man was born to have what it takes to play baseball . He always succeeded. And as long as pitchers continue to hang sliders and leave fastballs in the zone, he always will.