Giancarlo Stanton: A $300 Million Dollar Question Mark
Giancarlo Stanton, the 2017 NL MVP, left the MLB world in shock when he was traded to the Yankees last December. He led the MLB in 2017 with 59 home runs and 132 RBIs, as well as a Home Run Derby crown. His massive 13 year / $325,000,000 contract was transferred to the Yankees starting this 2018 season with Stanton earning between $25,000,000 and $32,000,000 per year until becoming a free agent in 2028. This is the largest sports contract in history, but with Stanton’s 2018 numbers, are the Yankees questioning their decision?
Prior to this season Stanton's strikeout ratio was improving.
Stanton started his season out on an uncharacteristically poor note, batting .241 in April and May and recording a league-high 69 strikeouts. He only had 9 home runs in the 49 games during these months and was overall not contributing to the team as expected. He began to break out of his slump in late May and has been batting over .300 since then, recording 8 home runs just in June. However, Stanton still has the 3rd most strikeouts in the league with 130, trailing close behind his teammate Aaron Judge who is tied for first with 132.
As has been the case for many a star athlete, is the Manhattan nightlife distracting Stanton? (seen here with Judge)
Stanton’s 23 home runs this season puts him tied for 8th in the MLB, but he doesn’t make the top 10 for any other batting category. Players like Altuve and JD Martinez are getting paid way less money than Stanton and are proving to be way larger assets – is Stanton worth it for the Yankees? Giancarlo is around the prime baseball age, so the Yankees are hopeful that he begins to perform at his full ability as he continues assimilating to the Yankees. If not, the Yankees could face major losses on this contract. However, with the Yankees payroll being only the 7th highest in the MLB, they will likely not have any problems spending more money on talent in the coming years if necessary, essentially biting the bullet on the Stanton trade.
Written by Dominick Ronan, Edited by Rachel Weissman & Alexander Fleiss
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