Waiting for Stanton. Will that be the 2025 Yankees' deathly legacy?

Imagine a tragic character from a Dickens novel. He's an aging cripple - bad elbows and legs - attempting to perform the physical tasks of a much younger man. He still has his pride, but he cannot run. He cannot swing a pick axe. He cannot lay off a curve in the dirt. He hits into double plays. He is a designated hitter without a designation, other than a sense of fatigue and hopelessness. 

He stems, of course, not from Charles Dickens, but from the mind of Brian Cashman, and he will define the GM's career legacy. Cashman traded for Giancarlo Stanton in 2018, the winter after Stanton won the National League MVP award. The Yankees paid a seemingly minor price for what was then baseball's premier slugger - never questioning why the Marlins, run by Derek Jeter, were so desperate to let him go.

In the summer before his trade, Stanton hit 59 HRs, drove in 132 runs and compiled an OPS of 1.007. He led the NL in almost every category of consequence. Ever since, he's shown flourishes of greatness, while surfing an endless list of injuries. In the combined seasons of 2019 and 2020, he hit a total of 7 homers. Seven.  

Last fall, he briefly excited the Yankiverse, belting 7 HRs in 14 postseason games. Once again, he raised expectations. I mean, the guy stole a base!  

Welp, so much for that. With two tennis elbows - who suffers two tennis elbows? - Stanton has become the 2025 Yankees Babadook - a grim presence who strikes out, hits into DPs, and who has leaves a gaping generational hole in the center of its lineup. Going into the second half, you wonder if the Yankees have any game plan beyond just playing Stanton and hoping for a miracle. And that plan looks increasingly dead.  

If you look at a list of Stanton's statistical doppelgangers - to the right - you are struck by one commonality: A lotta homers, a lotta big swings, a lotta strikeouts, and nobody in the Hall.  

The all-star break will soon be here. The Yankees will probably hit it in 2nd or 3rd place, struggling to stay afloat. Stanton will probably remain in the middle of every lineup, because the Yankees have no other option. Eight years after his arrival, everything still revolves around that godforsaken contract, which Jeter shed and Cashman swallowed. 

Stanton remains under contract through 2027. The following winter, the Yankees will surely exercise a $10 million buyout option. Stanton will go away, and his entire NY career might be defined by the lack of a world series ring.  

It's sad, if you think about it. I believe most Yank fans have come to view Stanton as a tragic figure, a player whose potential greatness was crushed by injuries, by factors beyond his control. You can't blame a guy for tennis elbows. But Stanton cannot stay healthy, and right now, he cannot hit. Upon his arrival, the first place Yankees began to unravel. It's not his fault. But soon, Cashman will have to make an ugly decision, with his legacy on the line.