CHICAGO — Three weeks into Giancarlo Stanton’s reintroduction to the outfield, it has gone just about as well as the Yankees could have hoped.
They are still playing with fire starting the veteran slugger in right field on most days as they wait for the training staff to clear Aaron Judge to play the field for the first time since suffering a flexor strain, but Stanton has held his own in the interim.
“It seems to be going well,” manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, when he had Stanton on the bench before he pinch hit and grounded into a double play in a 5-3, 11-inning win over the White Sox. “We had the one where I played him that [three] days in a row before the last trip, probably took a little out of him and he missed the St. Louis series with it. But even that was not that big a deal. I feel like physically, it’s gone well. He and I communicate well around it.
“So I’ve been pleased.”
The 35-year-old Stanton is still limited in how well he can move around because of his history of lower-body injuries, but so far his presence in right field has not yet burned the Yankees.
Coming into Saturday, Stanton had started 11 games in right field (and appeared in two more games there) since Judge returned from the injured list to tie up the DH spot.
But one thing he will not do, at least not in the upcoming series as the Yankees visit the Astros, is move over to left field.
The last time Stanton played the field in Houston — Game 3 of the 2022 ALCS — he started in left field, where the Crawford Boxes jut out and make for a smaller area to cover.
But Boone said on Saturday he did not have any plans on flipping Stanton to left field in Houston, in part because it does not have a big right field.
Boone said Fenway Park — where the Yankees will play a series in two weeks — is “the one extreme” with a spacious right field, meaning Stanton could “possibly” play left field there, as he has done in the past.
It is also possible the Yankees have Judge playing the field by then — he had a “light day” of work on Saturday after throwing to second base again on Friday — but a timeline for that to actually happen remains under seal.
“I think he continues to progress and continues to get a little bit better,” Boone said.
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In the meantime, Judge crushed his 42nd home run of the season Saturday night.
He entered the day batting just .216 in 22 games since coming off the IL, but went deep for the fifth time in that stretch.
“Good to see that,” Boone said. “He’ll get going. Can’t hold him down too long.”
Austin Wells homered for the second time in three games Saturday, offering more hope that he is beginning to turn a corner after an extended slump at the plate.
The catcher showed some extra emotion upon returning to the dugout after his 19th home run of the year.
“I think it was from the first two at-bats being pissed off I missed a couple pitches and was holding it in for a couple innings,” he said.
Devin Williams blew a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, giving up his first earned run since Aug. 8 after going eight straight appearances without one.