Yankees among World Series favourites
But slugger Stanton not looking past long regular season
TORONTO — The New York Yankees enter the 2018 Major League Baseball season among the favourites to win the World Series, but Giancarlo Stanton has his sights set on the gruelling 162game schedule ahead.
The addition of Stanton has many, including Sports Illustrated, predicting the Yankees to win their first World Series since 2009. But the ’17 National League MVP, who hit .281 with 59 home runs and 132 runs batted in last season with Miami, said the Yankees need to manage expectations and not look to the postseason when they haven’t even played their season opener.
“Knowing what we could do, knowing what the expectations are, knowing how good we are as individuals and how us together is much stronger than being individuals,” said Stanton, who will begin his Yankees tenure hitting behind Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge.
“Not look ahead, not already looking to, ‘Hey the season started, but we’re making playoffs,’ ” he said.
“You got to put the work in every day to get there and obviously that’s the goal.”
The Yankees will send righthander Luis Severino to the mound when they open their season Thursday at Toronto, while the Blue Jays will counter with lefty J.A. Happ. Severino is 0-3 with a 5.52 ERA in seven career appearances against Toronto and went 0-1 in two starts last season against the Blue Jays.
Despite the lack of success against the Jays, Severino was 14-6 with a 2.98 ERA in 31 starts last season.
Stanton isn’t the only newcomer to the Yankees lineup. New York acquired Brandon Drury from Arizona to play third and signed free-agent infielder Neil Walker.
Part of the adjustment for Stanton as he moves from the National League, where he spent the first eight years of his big league career with the Miami Marlins, will be shifting from the outfield to his new role as designated hitter.
“Hitting is a big part of my craft so it’s basically the same thing it’s just I don’t got to worry about defence everyday,” said Stanton, who expects to be in the outfield one or two times a week. “When I’m out there, I have to be more locked in because I have less reps. It’s different that way.”
Stanton has spent part of the spring developing chemistry with Judge. The two first got to know each other at last year’s all-star game in Miami.
Judge is coming off a season where he set a franchise record for home runs by a rookie and became the first Yankees righthanded hitter with at least 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored and 100 walks in a single season while winning the A.L. rookie of the year.
Stanton says his advice for his new teammate is simple. “Don’t try to compare numbers or compare where you were at this point last year,” he said. “Just build off (last season), trust yourself, trust your preparation and know you’re going to do well.”
First-year manager Aaron Boone joins the Yankees after spending the previous seven seasons in the broadcast booth. The 45-year-old, who spent part of the 2003 season playing for the Yankees, understands the pressures on his team, which finished second in runs and first in home runs last season but fell to eventual World Series champion Houston in the American League Championship Series.
“You always want to get off to a great start, but one of the things that I’ve hit with my players, and tried to drive home with them, we’re going to prepare each and everyday for each and every series to be at our best,” Boone said. “Hopefully over the course of 162 games, that plays out the way we believe it will. I’ll do my best not to get caught up in the daily wins and losses of it all.”