New York Yankees: 3 Most important players to watch down the stretch

Stanton must keep rolling

Although Giancarlo Stanton‘s recent tear has obviously helped carry the Yankees back to looking like a championship contender, why they cannot lose his current production is not as obvious.

Of course, he is an MVP caliber player and is finally playing like one, but there is a reason why Stanton is so valuable and important for the Yanks.

He is important because even if/when the Yankees get Aaron Judge back this year, Stanton still needs to be the home run guy.

Earlier this year when Stanton was consistently going 0-5, he got away with it because the Yankees had Judge who was doing fine and Didi Gregorius was going off.

Now, even if they come back, Stanton needs to remain as powerful as he has been because it might take a while after being back for Judge and Didi to get going again.

They might be active and able to play, but to rely on two players who just got off the DL to be the home run guys would not be a strategy that will pay off.

Stanton is the anchor of this offense and has been since they lost Judge. If Giancarlo is hitting well, so is everyone else.

Stanton’s home runs are usually timely. If they are not timely, than they are flat-out awesome. It rubs off on the players more than we would think.

So, if Stanton starts cooling off drastically, then the same can be said for the Yankees because it will be a while for everyone to get healthy and back in a consistent groove.