TAMPA, Fla. — Giancarlo Stanton feels his Yankees career is lacking.
«It’s definitely incomplete,» he said Tuesday ahead of his ninth season in pinstripes. «The point of being a Yankee is being a champion.»
Now 36 and entering the final two guaranteed seasons of a $325 million, 13-year contract he signed with the Miami Marlins, Stanton has gone on the injured list in seven consecutive seasons but has been a force when healthy.
Anthony Volpe won’t be ready for the March 25 opener but hopes to return in April following surgery on Oct. 14 to repair the labrum in his left shoulder.
He started a hitting progression Monday with dry swings – no ball involved – and hopes to advance soon to hitting off a tee and soft toss.
«My body’s ready to go defensively and running, so the hitting will be what we work through next, and judging on how everything’s gone so far, I’m just excited,» he said.
Volpe hurt the shoulder on May 3. He returned to the lineup two days later but struggled for much of the season. He had a pair of cortisone shots and hit .212 with 19 homers and a career-high 72 RBI. He went 1 for 15 with 11 strikeouts in the AL Division Series loss to Toronto, making an out in his last 13 at-bats.
Volpe’s surgery was more extensive than had been expected following an MRI.
«When I woke up from the surgery and we went through everything, we kind of had an idea of what the best case and what the worst case and everything in between would have been, so I wasn’t shocked» he said. «I was just more excited and in pain and motivated.»
Looking back, his left shoulder and side didn’t feel like his right after the injury. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said following the surgery that Volpe could start hitting in four months but couldn’t dive on the shoulder for six months.
«The first half rehabbing was tough. It felt like rock bottom as far as physically,» Volpe said. «Probably at the turn of the New Year is when I really started to feel good and I started to do stuff, baseball activity.»
