New York Yankees: Three realistic goals for Giancarlo Stanton in 2019

Playoff player

This goal has a lot of moving parts, and is the one he should worry about the least right now.

That is because in order for him to become a better player in the playoffs, the Yankees must first get to the playoffs.

They are an amazing team and have had an offseason that is solid and can only get better, so let’s play in safe and say they will see October baseball.

But my goodness, if the Yanks do return to the show, they need Stanton to do better. Big time stages is where big time players step up.

Stanton helped the Yankees get to the playoffs in his first season putting on the pinstripes, but he hurt them once they got there.

His totals for the postseason were this…..

• One home run, at is was during the Wild Card game when it was already a blowout.
• Then he only five hits in 21 at bats to go just .238.

Even that can be justified, but what he had to do in the playoffs to help the team win was help the Yankees score runs.

They were playing the Red Sox, the Red Sox were literally the best team and scored so many runs.

• Stanton had just one RBI in the postseason, just the one. That is it. He was a liability at the plate during the playoffs and it put Boone and his team in a bad place.

When he is not hitting home runs, you just have to wait until he does. If you take him out, you lose that threat and the potential to score a lot of runs over time.

In the playoffs, you can’t afford to do that. You cannot afford to wait around and see if someone will break their slump and hit home runs consistently.

In a long regular season, with no pressure and often more weak opponents, not when you need to be at your best at all times like in the playoffs.

So, how can the Yanks avoid this? By having Stanton be better in the postseason. This is not on the Yanks, it is on him.

He had his chance to prove he can step up in the clutch and did not. If he has the chance to make the playoffs again, he needs to step up, do better, and be better.

That is it. The entire contract could count as a bust if puts up poor numbers, sure, but it will mostly be a bust if he hurts them in their path to win a World Series title.

He might not always be able to win it for them, but he could at least lose it for them like he was close to doing.

Show up in the playoffs, Giancarlo. You can do it.

To conclude, the Yankees might not be stuck with Stanton forever, but with a lot of their players still on rookie contracts and with arbitration left, they can afford him right now, even if more big names come on.

As long as the Yankees can afford him, they should keep him because he is an overall asset.

So, if he is going to be here, he should strive for these three goals and play like a new man. If he does not, then the Yanks can worry about trading him when Aaron Judge needs a new contract down the road.