NEW YORK — The boos are getting louder. The numbers are plummeting. The signs of a breakthrough are hard to find.
Giancarlo Stanton is enduring one of the worst stretches of his entire tenure with the Yankees this month and it doesn’t seem like he’s making any sort of progress.
After another 0-for-4 on Friday night — including a 50.9-mph check-swing looper to first base, a strikeout looking and a routine grounder with the game on the line in the bottom of the ninth inning — Stanton is now hitting .067 (3-for-45) in his last 13 games.
Overall in 2023, the slugger is batting .183 in 28 games — that’s 19 hits in 104 at-bats — with a .635 OPS and 30 strikeouts. His walk rate has slipped to less than six percent, the lowest of his career by a significant margin.
Stanton’s streakiness offensively can be toxic at times, but it can also be exhilarating. He’ll have spurts on both sides of the spectrum, rarely hovering in-between. It’s either a few series of ineptitude, some cringeworthy swings and growing frustration from the fan base or an extended stretch of absolute dominance with screaming line drives that test the limits of Statcast and quality at-bats that can make a pitcher’s head spin.
This is a 33-year-old that can live well below the Mendoza Line for weeks at a time, suddenly swat a 500-foot homer and catch fire.
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What Stanton has spiraled into now, however, is sustained ineffectiveness. Yes, he missed almost two months of this season with a hamstring injury, but these issues extend as far back as last year.
Entering play on Friday, Stanton was hitting .169 with a .618 OPS, 72 wRC+ and 80 strikeouts since last summer’s All-Star break, a 61-game stretch dating back to July 21 of last year.
Factor in his entire 2022 campaign and Stanton has a .204 batting average with 37 home runs in his last 139 games. He fits the mold of a modern slugger, he’s been a leader in the…
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