Stanton Proves the Yankees Are Not Serious About Winning

By Paul Semendinger

November 11, 2026

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One fact says it all:

Now, we have been through the stats before, over and over. I'll run some stats again below, but for reference, please read the following article that I published last August:

Giancarlo Stanton: One of the Greatest? No, sadly...

From a team-building standpoint, from a logic standpoint, and from a statistical standpoint, it makes no sense, none at all, to bring Giancarlo Stanton back in 2027.

In short:

• Stanton cannot play in the field.

• Stanton cloggs the DH spot at a time when the Yankees already have a glut of other players who will need to use the DH spot including Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, and Luis Garcia.

• But not only can Stanton not play the field, he also can't run. If he gets on base, he can only move station-to-station. Further, when he tries to run, Stanton gets injured. We know this. We have seen this.

Simply put, Giancarlo Stanton is not a productive player. At all. If one looks at the entirety of his Yankees career, it demonstrates clearly and absolutely, that Giancarlo Stanton is not a productive player.

Here are the cold hard facts:

• Over the entirety of his Yankees career, 9 seasons, Giancarlo Stanton has combined to earn only 11.1 WAR.

• On average, across his entire Yankees career, Giancarlo Stanton is a 1.2 WAR player per season.

• Remember how bad Anthony Volpe was last year (2026)? His 2026 season was worth 1.2 WAR. That has been Stanton's average yearly production across his entire Yankees career.

• Since the start of Stanton's Yankees career, the team has played 1,356 regular season games. Stanton has appeared in only 764 of them - just 56% of the team's games. But it gets worse...

• In 68 of his games played, Stanton appeared as a pinch-hitter. That means he has only started 696 games as a Yankee. That's 51.3% of all games played. But even that number is inflated...

• If one takes away Stanton's first season in New York, when he played in 158 games, over the last 8 seasons, the Yankees have played 1,194 games. Stanton has played in just 606 of those games. That's 50.7% - just over half of the games played. If one takes away the games he was just a pinch-hitter (he didn't pinch hit at all in 2018)...

• Over the last 8 seasons, Giancarlo Stanton has played in only 538 games as a starter. That's 45% of the games.

• Let's go back to WAR... if one looks at only Stanton's last eight seasons, Giancarlo Stanton averages 0.83 WAR per season. Let that sink in, over eight seasons, the most recent eight seasons, Stanton is a less than 1 WAR player each year.

• Over the last five seasons, the most recent sample size, Giancarlo Stanton is a 0.50 WAR player.

• Stanton also isn't a big threat in the batter's box when he actually does play. Over the last five years, he is batting .225. His On Base percentage in that time is .301. He has slugged .475 in that period. His OPS+ is just 113. Again, this is over FIVE seasons.

A team cannot be serious about winning a World Series when it is going to be investing its time, a roster spot, at bats, and the rest on a player who, for 8 seasons has been able to play less than 50% of the team's games and when he does play, he isn't productive, and is worth less than 1 WAR a season.

Again, this is all obvious on its face.

And if I know and figure out these numbers, then the Yankees certainly do as well.

One can draw only one conclusion - the Yankees are content with this approach. They're satisfied.

And if the Yankees are content and satisfied with this, it is clear, crystal clear, that winning a World Series is not their first priority. One can draw no other conclusion.