At this point, it's probably unlikely that Giancarlo Stanton is going to be ready to go for the New York Yankees by the time Opening Day arrives in nearly one month as he deals with injuries to both of his elbows. Nobody truly knows what's going on here outside of the Yankees organization, but the longer Stanton sits out of spring training games, the less likely it is that he'll be ready to go when the regular season begins.
This is a frustrating blow to a Yankees lineup that is already without Juan Soto, who took his talents to the New York Mets. But it's certainly better for the oft-injured Stanton to be hurt now than in October, right?
Assuming Stanton is out, the Yankees have a couple of different ways they can look into replacing him. They could choose to start Trent Grisham in the outfield and improve their team defense by slotting Jasson Dominguez at DH, but adding Grisham's subpar bat to an already iffy lineup feels less than ideal. They could choose to insert a younger player like Ben Rice, who showed flashes of brilliance in his MLB cameo last season but also had trouble making consistent contact.
Perhaps the most underwhelming, yet very realistic, option could be to turn to a player Yankees fans are more familiar with as an opponent: Dom Smith, who spent last season with the Boston Red Sox. Smith was the definition of a replacement-level player in Boston, as evidenced by his 0.0 bWAR, but his fun personality and his pitching (0 ER given up in three innings) made him a fan favorite among Red Sox Nation. And based on his spring training performance so far this year, he might be the leader in the race among Stanton replacement options.
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Dom Smith continues to establish himself as a potential Giancarlo Stanton replacement with strong start to spring training
Given his status as a non-roster invitee, Smith faced an uphill battle to make the team's Opening Day roster. But Stanton's injury combined with his hot start has flipped the script in a hurry. All of a sudden, Smith is playing his way onto the team.
Smith might only have two hits in his eight at-bats this spring, but both of those hits have left the ballpark. He launched a solo shot on Wednesday, giving him home runs on back-to-back days.
Dom Smith has homers on back-to-back days pic.twitter.com/TteeySVexA
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 26, 2025
It's easy to be underwhelmed by the idea of Smith, a player who has not hit more than 12 home runs in a big-league season and has a .671 OPS over the past four years, serving as a regular DH. But when determining who will replace an injured player, spring training might be the deciding factor.
If he continues to produce, even in games that are meaningless, the Yankees might not have a choice but to roll with him assuming Stanton is out. Who knows, maybe Smith can shed the Red Sox fan-favorite label and become a Boston villain - wouldn't that be something?