World Series 2024: Giancarlo Stanton, playing in his first Fall Classic with the Yankees, can still hit the baseball with more power than anyone

LOS ANGELES – This October, Giancarlo Stanton reminded us of his credentials as one of the most prolific postseason performers of his generation, but in recent years much of the discussion surrounding the giant slugger has centered more on his deficiencies than his strengths.

At last year's general manager meetings, Yankees GM Brian Cashman caused a stir when he expressed what to expect from the former MVP's future.

“We're trying to limit the amount of time he's out, but I'm not going to tell you he's going to play every game next year because that's not the case,” Cashman said. “He'll probably get hurt again because it's like this” seems to be part of his game.

It was an unusual display of honesty from a GM to a player – which drew significant and understandable criticism – but, simply put, Cashman was right. hamstrings, knee, quadriceps, groin, calf, Achilles; Stanton has been on the injured list throughout his 15-year career due to ailments in virtually every part of his lower half. In turn, his mobility has drastically decreased, ending his days as an outfielder and severely limiting his speed on the basepaths. Overall, Stanton's production and availability over the course of a 162-game regular season are undeniably not what they once were.

But even as injuries caused him to slowly transition from his days as an everyday outfielder vying for MVP awards to his current role as a designated hitter who misses about 50 games a year, Stanton's fundamental skill has remained: ability to hit a baseball with more power than perhaps any other player the game has ever seen.

“That’s tremendous bat speed,” Yankees assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes said. “It's the best in the world. That’s where the power comes from.”

In addition to batted ball data collected since 2015 – data that has confirmed Stanton's status as unrivaled when it comes to exit velocity – Statcast introduced bat tracking in 2024, providing further insight into the physical characteristics of each hitter's swing in the form of bat speed. In fact, even at age 34, Stanton's bat speed is in a class of its own, averaging 81.2 mph. It's not hard to imagine this being the case during his Miami heyday, but the fact that Stanton has managed to maintain this particular trait over the years is no small feat.

“You see a lot of guys who are insanely athletic and have a ton of bat speed early in their career, and that fades away toward the end of their career,” Dykes said. “For him, he has managed to keep what he has: being the best in the world. It shows how conscientious he is about his training and how he takes care of himself.”

Stanton's batting stance has also evolved over the course of his career, as he continually reconsiders his ideal position in the batter's box in order to continue swinging the bat with such ferocity. “It was the whole spectrum from pretty open to very closed to a little narrower,” Stanton said of how he optimized his stance by changing the angle and direction of his feet in relation to the pitcher. “I'm constantly searching in the lab, trying to figure out how to be the most successful over a long period of time, and that has changed and evolved over the years. And, you know, I lost a few hairs and got a few gray hairs because of it… but yeah, that's part of it, and that's where we are.”

While his secondary abilities have largely disappeared, Stanton's determination to do whatever it takes to maintain and access his superior powers has allowed him to remain relevant not only into his mid-30s, but also amid the pursuit of New York as a main character reappearing in his first World Series in 15 years. His already stellar postseason resume was further bolstered this month by his epic performance in the ALCS against Cleveland, where he hit four home runs in five games and captured ALCS MVP honors. It's the latest chapter in a great career that has been defined in many ways by the long ball.

In fact, Stanton has been synonymous with home runs since he started swinging the bat – something that can't be said about even his closest colleagues in the energy department. Consider Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, two of the few players on the planet who can hit a baseball similar to Stanton. We've come to recognize this duo as the standard-bearers of annual power production – no two players have amassed more long balls over the last four seasons than Judge (196) and Ohtani (178) – but each needed time for their physical abilities to shine through bring in significant home run totals.

Ohtani's tremendous raw power was occasionally on display early in his career, but he did not hit more than 22 home runs in a single year, in either Japan or the MLB, until 2021, his ninth professional season. Like Stanton, Judge was a multi-sport star in high school who had an unusual combination of size and athleticism, but his superior strength didn't produce flashy stats until he mastered his swing mechanics at the major league level. Judge hit just 18 home runs in 169 collegiate contests at Fresno State and never hit more than 20 in a minor league season.

There was no delay for Stanton. In his first full professional season in 2008, he led the Low-A South Atlantic League with 39 home runs and was one of the youngest players in the league. Stanton was still a teenager throughout his second professional campaign, but his hitting prowess propelled him to Double-A, where he continued to hit tape-measure shots that witnesses still remember today. He made his MLB debut at age 20 in June 2010 and soon after hit a grand slam for his first career home run.

Since then, Stanton has hit 428 more regular season home runs, ranking him 51st on the all-time list. Following the retirements of Miguel Cabrera and Nelson Cruz last year, Stanton now holds the title of home run king among active MLB players. Although his pace has slowed in recent years due to injury, he remains on a plausible path to becoming the 29th member of the 500 home game club.

Of course, tracking those milestones isn't a problem for Stanton right now. He's fully focused on the task at hand: helping the Yankees secure their 28th championship in franchise history. And with each subsequent ultra-clutch swing, it becomes increasingly clear that Stanton's recent hot streak in October is the result not only of his immense power, but also of his meticulous preparation. Manager Aaron Boone spoke during the ALCS about how Stanton especially benefits from seeing the pitchers multiple times and praised all the work Stanton does behind the scenes to put himself in a position to be successful. “His preparation and his ability to just focus is impressive,” Boone said.

“You have to study pitchers all the time. It doesn't matter what time of year. You have to do your own homework and make a plan of how you think they're going to approach you and take information here and there,” Stanton said Thursday. “But at the end of the day, the best way to know your thought process as a hitter is to understand how you’re approached.”

Beyond learning the enemy's weapons, Stanton also makes it a point to familiarize himself with the environments in which he will strike. Before Games 3-5 of the ALCS in Cleveland, Stanton and Judge were on the field long before both teams' standard batting practice, executing swings at varying speeds and angles from the machine.

“Downloading the background, downloading the depth perception,” Stanton said after the Yankees won the AL pennant in Game 5. “It's very important to be ready to go in the first inning and not have to see a few pitches to get my timing and download it because that could determine the game right in the first moment.”

The two sluggers were also the only Yankees to take live batting practice Thursday during New York's practice at Dodger Stadium before Game 1 of the World Series.

“I understand how important every pitch, every moment is,” Stanton said of competing this time of year and the work it takes to feel ready. “I just try to get as much information as possible, any film, any swings I need. I'm exhausting it. That's why I'm exhausted after these (games) – and that's what I enjoy. I enjoy this hustle and bustle. I have to. You’re not always going to go out and perform well, but as long as I have all the information I can, I’ll be in a good position.”

While he's far from the only Yankee making his first World Series appearance, Stanton has had a particularly long wait to get to this point: Of active players, only Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have played more games without them World Series than Stanton before now. That the Dodgers are the opponent serves as a particularly compelling backdrop to Stanton's first Fall Classic. This isn't just the team he rooted for as a kid. It's also the team that didn't draft him after he was a high school star in nearby Sherman Oaks, and the team that was reportedly his preferred landing spot when it became clear in 2017 that the Marlins would trade him.

Stanton has said that Dodger Stadium is his favorite stadium to play in, and it is also the venue where two of his most memorable moments as a major leaguer occurred: his home run in 2015 that completely cleared out the left pavilion, and the All 2022 Star Game, in which he hit a home run and earned MVP honors.

Now that Stanton has helped the Yankees to this point with two more rounds of postseason excellence, the stage is set for him to further cement his October legacy, starting Friday in Los Angeles.