By Brendan Kuty
TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge felt silly. Giancarlo Stanton had just clobbered the baseball, sending it soaring over the batter’s eye in center field. But Judge, leading off second base in the first inning, jogged back to the bag to tag up out of habit. Then, Judge did it again the next inning, tagging up at first base on Stanton’s next no-doubter to left field.
“I think he got a little mad at me about that,” Judge said. “I won’t do that again.”
Stanton finished with three home runs in the New York Yankees’ 12-0 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Steinbrenner Field on Wednesday night. It was his first time hitting three homers in any game.
“It is cool and it will be erased in about a week,” Stanton said. “Awesome.”
Even if spring training statistics are meaningless, the Yankees surely saw Stanton’s power display as a good sign. With the season opener Thursday against the Astros in Houston, the Yankees want to see that the work Stanton, 34, did in the offseason to change his swing and overhaul his body has paid off.
“Impressive to see him back doing what he does,” Judge said.
“He’s looked good all spring from the start,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I feel he’s been in control of his at-bats. He was really precise, and when he’s like that, he’s pretty scary.”
He was 3 for 3 with a sacrifice fly and eight runs batted in Wednesday. In 14 games, he was hitting .317 with four homers and 11 RBIs in 41 at-bats.
“I just see a guy in the batter’s box who’s a lot calmer in his approach,” hitting coach James Rowson said. “I think I’m watching a guy who’s not very anxious to do things, but it’s more about allowing the game to come to him a little bit. I think his alignment at the plate is very good, just in terms of making sure his torso is squared up. I think he’s kind of checking the boxes of being in a good position to hit. Now, it’s a matter of seeing more pitches.”
Stanton is coming off two dismal seasons. In 2023, he stumbled to a .191 batting average, just 24 homers and 60 RBIs in 101 games as the Yankees finished fourth in the American League East. In 2022, he had a strong first half and was an All-Star, but an Achilles injury hampered him in the second half, and he finished with a .211 batting average and 31 homers.
It has put Stanton in a strange place. No stranger to boos in the Bronx, some fans on social media spent the offseason calling for the team to cut him and the $98 million they owe him through 2028. A drop in the lineup also seems likely. Stanton, typically the Yankees’ cleanup hitter, might bat sixth against right-handers — especially with the arrival of right fielder Juan Soto. On the first day of camp, he talked about how he has had one goal since arriving in the Bronx — winning a World Series — and he hasn’t achieved it.
Boone said he felt Stanton’s mood during his winter workouts was less than joyful. When a reporter suggested that Stanton had a bit of a chip on his shoulder coming into this season, Boone countered that he had “a lot of a chip.”
“I’d say there’s an added edge to him,” Boone said.
Judge said he has noticed improvements in Stanton.
“Just with his swing,” Judge said, “I feel like he’s getting into his zone a little better, and I think he’s using right field a little bit more. I feel like his bat is staying in the zone.” He added: “So, it’s impressive. He said he was going to put in a lot of work, and in the offseason, he goes and does his thing and he’s done it so far. I think we’re all excited to see what he does this year.”
Stanton showed up to spring training having dropped a lot of weight. His thighs, in particular, looked slimmer. He said he was trying to stay on the field more often. Since joining the Yankees in 2018, he has played in just 549 of a possible 870 regular-season games, or 63.1%.
But the change has helped in other ways, too. Stanton said he feels like his new body has helped him become more mobile in the box and better able to access the strength in his lower half. Stanton said he was still bothered by the 2022 Achilles injury in 2023. He said at some point last year he felt like he was in “a spiral out of balance.”
“I think there were a lot of things that knocked him out, and then minor things that just keep you from being a Ferrari,” Boone said.
This year, Stanton will make $34 million — plenty more than a Ferrari. But the Yankees at least hope that what he has shown of late has been his version of revving his engine before the race starts on opening day.
“It’s a good start, a good preview, and now we’ve got to keep it together,” Stanton said.
This article originally appeared in <a href=”https://theathletic.com/5358147/2024/03/21/yankees-giancarlo-stanton-three-home-runs/”>The New York Times</a>.