Giancarlo Stanton Nears Return From Injured List After Full Workout at Yankee Stadium
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NEW YORK — Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton worked out with his teammates at Yankee Stadium on Monday afternoon, taking another stride closer to his return from the 10-day injured list.
Stanton hasn't played in more than three weeks, slowly beginning to introduce more baseball activities to his daily routine as he works back from left Achilles tendinitis.
"Still getting my feet under me so that's why I need a few more days to make sure I'm good to go for a full game," Stanton said after his workout on Monday.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone walked through Stanton's schedule earlier in the afternoon, listing off his pregame routine with defensive work in the outfield and some batting practice. The slugger also tracked pitches while right-handers Frankie Montas and Domingo Germán threw bullpen sessions in an effort to regain his timing at the plate. That's something Stanton will be doing each day going forward.
"The biggest thing for him is standing in on some of those and just upping his volume," Boone said. "He's been bouncing back really well over the last week, but now let's get to a level of volume of work and see how he responds to that. Hopefully we're getting close to being in a good spot there."
Stanton explained that this injury is something he doesn't want to rush back from, saying that part of the body has "a mind of its own."
That doesn't make it any easier considering the slugger has missed New York's last 20 games. Including their loss on Monday night to the Rays, the Yankees are 7-13 in that stretch).
"It's very annoying. It's annoying not playing in general. But you gotta be smart also. So that trumps everything."
Keeping in mind that Stanton hasn't taken the field in a game since July 23, odds are the 32-year-old will need to go on a rehab assignment to prepare for his eventual return to pinstripes. Stanton said he wants to play in the "least amount" of rehab games as possible, hoping to get back to his teammates at Yankee Stadium as quickly as possible.
"He's been down long enough now so the biggest thing is getting his workload up to where the first time you go into a nine inning game in the big leagues, you've built to that point and have some volume under your belt and can bounce back from that volume," Boone added.
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