Giancarlo Stanton’s historic home run numbers go unnoticed for Yankees – The Denver Post

When Giancarlo Stanton homered 425 feet in Wednesday’s win over the Tigers, the Yankees slugger quietly made MLB history.

The solo shot was Stanton’s 20th homer of the year, making him the only player to reach that milestone in 12 different seasons since 2010. He broke a tie with Nelson Cruz, who had done it 11 times during this sequence.

The lack of focus around Stanton’s fourth-inning outburst was perhaps appropriate, given that his prolific power and consistency have often been overshadowed by his massive contract and injury streak in recent years.

Wednesday’s home run was the 398th of Stanton’s career. Only 57 players hit 400 homers. At just 33, Stanton is set to join the 500 home run club, which has long been considered automatic admission to the Hall of Fame.

Of the 28 players to have hit 500 home runs, 19 are Hall of Famers. Two others – Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera – look set to follow suit once they are eligible. The other seven, including Alex Rodriguez and circuit king Barry Bonds, were each linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Assuming Stanton breaks the 400 mark in the final month of the 2023 season, he would need to average around – or maybe a little under – 25 home runs per year over the next four years to reach 500 before the end of the season. end of his contract with the Yankees.

He’s hit at least 25 home runs nine times in his career and has a good chance of doing it again in 2023. Stanton is on a hot streak right now, entering Thursday with a .333/.357/ average. 630 with two circuits. , two doubles, 6 RBIs and three runs scored in his last six games.

“I go back and forth, good at bat, bad at bat, but I make good contacts when I do,” Stanton told the YES Network after Wednesday’s game. “I just have to keep going.”

Of course, injuries could put Stanton’s pursuit in jeopardy. Ailments in the biceps, MCL, quad, hamstrings, calf and Achilles cost Stanton more than 200 games during his tenure with the Yankees, which began in 2018.

Still, Stanton often manages to post screaming home run totals despite missing time. Last year, Stanton homered 31 in 110 games. He hit 27 home runs in 74 games for the Marlins in 2015.

Stanton is one of seven players to hit 59 homers in a season, a feat he achieved in 2017, his final year with Miami before being traded to the Yankees.

His 131 home runs with the Yankees rank 37th in the team’s 121-year history. Achieving at least 92 over the next four seasons would put Stanton 12th in team history, ahead of household names such as Don Mattingly, Roger Maris and Bill Dickey.

Stanton’s historic stats tend to go unnoticed, with fans often focusing on him as the emblematic child of the Yankees’ roster construction issues. Stanton is regularly relegated to the designated hitter role for the Yankees in an effort to keep him healthy, and he’s become something of an all-or-nothing hitter, hitting .211 last season and .206 this year.

His power prowess is often overshadowed by that of teammate Aaron Judge, who hit an American League record 62 homers last season and is at a career-high 250.

But Stanton’s career totals already put him in rare company — and they’re only getting better.

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