New York Post

MLB officials don’t see any weaknesses

- By DAN MARTIN dan.martin@nypost.com

When it became clear the Yankees were on the verge of landing Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins, one National League scout just laughed in response to what the lineup will look like in The Bronx next season.

“I was at the All-Star Game in Miami in July,’’ the scout said. “I watched that Home Run Derby. Now the two of them are together? Come on.”

“The two of them,’’ of course, are Stanton and Aaron Judge, the two behemoth sluggers who were often compared to each other thanks to Judge’s emergence last year.

The addition of Stanton in exchange for Starlin Castro and a pair of minor league prospects right-hander Jorge Guzman and infielder Jose Devers — as well as the Yankees’ willingnes­s to take on all but $30 million of the $295 million remaining on Stanton’s contract over the next decade — wasn’t yet official as of Saturday night, but the fact it seemed all but done left plenty of other baseball officials in disbelief.

“I don’t see a weakness,” an NL executive said of a lineup that would feature not just Judge and Stanton, but also Gary Sanchez. “Maybe one of them will have a hard time switching positions in the outfield. That’s about it. Otherwise, forget it — especially in that park.”

And as other execs pointed out, Stanton and Judge won’t simply be a two-headed monster.

“I get that all the talk will be about the two of them, but you’re also looking at the catcher,’’ an AL West scout said. “I don’t know how you want to spread them around the lineup, but I don’t know that it matter that much.”

But the move would not come without at least some potential questions.

Judge has played exclusivel­y right field for the Yankees and Stanton has spent all but one inning in right with the Marlins. They could alternate right field and DH, which would make sense becbecause both have dealt with injury woes, but the Yankees also use Sanchez at DH to keep him in ththe lineup and not overworked behind the plate. Other issues were raised, as well. Stanton bristled at times when asked about Judge’s breakout first half last season, and one exec, who didn’t claim to know Stanton well, pointed to a potential issue there.

“[Stanton] is waiving his no-trade clause, so it shouldn’t really be a concern, but it’s a unique situation and they’ve got a manager stepping into hishi first job,” the AL exec said of Aaron Boone, who was named manager last week. “It’s not the easiest situation to walk into, but I don’t think anyone is really worried about it.”

Judge welcomed Stanton on Twitter on Saturday, where he linked to a clip from the movie “Step Brothers” that said, “Did we just become best friends?”

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