Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton ‘can’t open a bag of chips’ due to pain, but still eyes ‘full season’

TAMPA, Fla. — With a bat clutched under his arm, Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton was about to head from his locker to hit in a cage Wednesday afternoon when NJ.com approached to see how he’s feeling.

Stanton stopped, looked up and answered with a crooked smile and no words.

Once again, a full offseason of rest didn’t heal his tennis elbow that have plagued both arms since 2024.

“That’ll never be the case,” Stanton said softly.

Never?

“Not while I’m in this line of work,” he said. “You have your good days and bad days, just like your mood and everything.”

His good days aren’t normal.

“I can’t open a bottle,” Stanton said. “I can’t open a bag of chips … a bag of anything. That’s the way it is.”

Stanton doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him. In fact, it’s hard to get him to admit anything is wrong because he’s not an excuse maker.

He’s appeared in only 56.4% (582 of 1,032) of the Yankees’ regular-season games since 2019. He missed the Yankees’ first 70 games last season to rehab his elbow. This season, he’s determined to stay off the injured list.

“For me, he’s the poster child of mentally tough,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I don’t know how else to say it. It’s true: Poster child.”

Stanton believes that Yankees fans don’t feel that way.

“The (public) outlook would be that I wouldn’t be (mentally tough) because I’ve missed games,” he said.

Dr. Spencer Stein, a sports orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone Health, told NJ.com last March that Stanton would be facing only “a couple months recovery” with surgery, “which is essentially cleaning out the tendon (in both elbows) and then possibly repairing as well.”

Does Stanton regret not having surgery?

“You get the surgery and you can go back to being in the general population in a few months, but my job is to put some of the most force into a batted ball,” he said.

Stanton’s right about that. He has been among baseball’s leaders in exit velocity for years and had a 94.4 mph average exit velocity in 2025. That’s a lot of elbow stress.

“That’s not going to be fixed in surgery, and I don’t care what any doctor says because they don’t know what’s going on,” Stanton said. “What’s written (about my elbows) is what me and the Yankees give you.”

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Last year, he pushed through pain after playing his first game on June 16.

In 77 games, he had a .273 average, 24 home runs and 66 RBIs in 281 plate appearances.

Stanton’s 11.7 plate appearances per home run in 2025 matched the rate of his 2017 MVP season, when he hit 59 home runs with 132 RBIs in 692 plate appearances.

His .994 OPS last season was the second highest of his career, only trailing his 1.007 mark in ’17, and his .273 batting average was his best since 2021.

“That doesn’t matter,” said Stanton. “The key is get in the box. My last year overall numbers were low.

“I want a full season.”

The Yankees agree, which is why they’re taking it slow in spring training.

Stanton has been held out of the Yankees’ first six Grapefruit League games, and he’ll likely miss at least four more.

But he’s getting in his work before games, and he feels good. He has been hitting in the batting cage, facing live pitching in batting practice and even receiving occasional reps in right and left field.

Stanton and Boone have settled on a spring debut at DH on March 3 when Jose Caballero and the Panama WBC team visit Steinbrenner Field.

“Around then,” Stanton said.

The Yankees think two weeks of regular at-bats is enough for Stanton to be ready for Opening Day on March 25 in San Francisco.

“You never come into a season thinking it’s not going to be a huge season, but you let the season play out,” Stanton said. “Just get me in the box. The key is get in the box.”

To keep Stanton productive and healthy, he will get a lot of rest days during the season.

“No doubt, no doubt,” Boone said. “We did that last year. There were days he was playing where it was tough for him, but he wanted in there. There are other days he wanted to be in there and I’d say, ‘We have to stay disciplined to this because you’re so critical to us.’”

Especially in October.

His 18 postseason home runs — all with the Yankees across 44 games — are tied for the 10th most all-time.

The five-time All-Star is baseball’s active home run leader with 453. Forty-seven more and he’ll become the 41st member of the 500 Club.

Stanton is forcing himself to play in pain because he feels an obligation to be in the Yankees lineup, and he wants to win a World Series.

“There’s certain things you just can’t do without help,” Stanton said. “You just get your mind off it and go get ‘em.”

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