The Yankees' blockbuster offseason acquisition is off to a historically bad start

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April 10, 2018 8:36 PM

Giancarlo Stanton is the reigning NL MVP, but his play to start the season has been far from what was expected of him since joining the Yankees.

Giancarlo Stanton was set up for another year as one of the most dominant hitters in baseball after moving to the Yankees in a blockbuster offseason deal.
Instead, Stanton's start has been remarkably bad, making history in all of the wrong ways for the Yankees.
The worst day of Stanton's start came on Sunday when his fifth strikeout of the game was the final out in extra innings and earned him boos from the New York crowd.

The New York Yankees acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton was undoubtedly the biggest move of the MLB offseason.

The Yankees, already a team on the rise, sent a load of prospects down to the Miami Marlins and in return got the reigning NL MVP, reigning home run king, and one of the best all-around players in baseball. With Stanton heading to a new home with a shorter fence and paired with second-year slugger Aaron Judge, the Bronx Bombers looked, on paper, set to break baseball a year after MLB players set a new league-wide record for home runs in a season.

But two weeks into his debut in pinstripes, Stanton is stalling at the plate to an unprecedented degree.

On Sunday, Stanton became the first player to ever have two games with no hits and five strikeouts in the same season — just ten games into the 2018 season. ESPN Stats & Info also noted that Stanton had more strikeouts last week (16) than Joe DiMaggio did in the entirety of his 1941 season.

Stanton's struggles have also come at inopportune times with the Yankees. On Sunday, he was 0-6 heading into the bottom of the 12th inning, with runners on base and a chance to win the game.

After Judge grounded into a double play for the first two outs of the inning, the stage was set for Stanton to redeem his brutal start with one great swing, but he struck out again, his fifth of the game, and the home crowd showered him with boos.

It's safe to say, this is not the start the Yankees had in mind when they signed their newest slugger to a $25 million a year deal.

Stanton is making history with the New York Yankees, just in all of the wrong ways.

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