The New York Yankees are definitely in a form of crisis right now, as they recently learned that Aaron Judge will likely be sidelined for a couple of months due to a stress fracture in his ribs.
Judge clearly wasn’t right throughout the month of May, and now, we know the primary culprit was the injury. So at least there’s that.
But what will the Yankees do in the meantime?
New York has the talent to win sans Judge, which it displayed in its last couple of games when it combined to score 13 runs in consecutive wins.
Paul Goldschmidt is turning back the clock, Cody Bellinger is actually a sleeper MVP candidate, Trent Grisham has been on an absolute tear after an abysmal start and Ben Rice has maintained an OPS over 1.000.
But you do kind of get the feeling that the Yankees are going to need someone else to step in and fill the void with Judge on the shelf.
A trade is possible, but the deadline isn’t until Aug. 3, and teams aren’t overly likely to start selling off major pieces now. Spencer Jones is a tantalizing talent, but whether or not he is prepared to fill such massive shoes remains to be seen.
So, what else can New York do?
Well, there is one player who should be returning from injury rather soon who can stabilize this lineup and bring a much-needed veteran presence to the group: Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton has been out with a calf injury since late April and seems to be trending toward a return. It’s looking like he’ll bypass a rehab assignment, so he could be back in the lineup sooner than you think.
The 36-year-old has been absolutely timeless. Just when it looked like he was cooked following a brutal 2023 campaign, he responded with 27 home runs and a historically great postseason run in 2024. Then, in 77 games last year, he posted a .944 OPS.
People tend to forget that Stanton was once a dominant MVP, and he has absolutely carried the Yankees for stretches before. Heck, he did it last year when a perfectly healthy Judge was scuffling during the middle of the summer.
Stanton’s early 2026 results were not quite as impressive, as he was slashing .256/.302/.422 with three home runs and 14 RBI over 96 plate appearances before the injury, but by now, we know that Stanton is capable of going completely nuclear at moment’s notice. Perhaps more than any other player in baseball.
Not to mention the fact that Stanton’s barrel rate (18 percent, which is actually above his rate of 17.4 percent during his 59-homer MVP season in 2017) and expected slugging percentage (.466) indicate that he was getting a bit unlucky over the first month of the campaign.
Yes, Stanton is pushing 40 with severe pain in both elbows, so it might be asking a whole lot to expect him to shoulder the burden left by Judge at this point of his career.
But then, you remember what he did in October 2024 when Judge was basically M.I.A., and you also recall what he achieved last summer and you realize that Big G is probably still entirely capable of leading the charge.
Make no mistake: the Yanks could still afford to add another bat, even when Judge and Stanton are both healthy. Their lineup depth is a problem with or without their two gargantuan mashers, so a trade would be ideal regardless.
In the meantime, though, Stanton could be just the antidote — and the hero — that the Yankees need while their captain is compromised.
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