Giancarlo Stanton's season with Yankees in doubt after latest injury setback
Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton in the dugout during a game at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 12, 2026. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Giancarlo Stanton’s chances of returning to the Yankees' lineup were thrust into serious doubt when he suffered a new injury while in the final stages of rehabbing from the right calf strain that has sidelined him since April 24.
Stanton was running the bases earlier in the week when he fell and suffered a left calf injury, manager Aaron Boone said Saturday. He called it a moderate calf strain and said Stanton will try to rehab and make it back before the end of the season.
“We're not ruling anything out . . . . [and] he'll obviously continue to try and get it right and hopefully be available, but obviously we're at a point in the calendar where it gets challenging,” Boone said. “But you also never know.”
Boone said Stanton was very close to being activated from the injured list. Asked if Stanton was clearing the last hurdle to be activated, he replied, “Yes.”
Stanton, 36, was batting .256 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 24 games when he was injured while jogging to second on a walk to Jazz Chisholm Jr. He was well along in his rehab from that injury when he suffered a second one in a different part of the same calf, setting him back.
“Obviously, it's been a tough road where he kind of reinjured a different part of the calf muscle halfway through . . . and now this,” Boone said. “So [it’s] tough news, and you just you feel for [Stanton] because I know how bad he wants to be in there with us.
“But at the same time, it is what it is, too, and we’ve got to just keep moving and try and hopefully get him right to where he still can be in the mix by the end.”
Stanton’s injury history is extensive, and most of them have been to his lower body. He played in 158 games in 2018, the season after the Yankees acquired the former MVP in a trade with the Marlins. Since then, he’s played more than 114 games in a season only once.
He was limited to 77 games last season with issues in both elbows after losing time in 2024 and 2023 to hamstring injuries. In his time with the Yankees, they’ve also put him on the IL for injuries to his quadriceps, ankle, knee and Achilles.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
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