Giancarlo Stanton had a poor season for the New York Yankees in 2023, hitting .191 with a .275 on-base percentage with 24 home runs. After the last game of the season, Giancarlo Stanton said he would be getting right to work on fixing his issues to set himself up for a bounce-back in 2024, and he could go to work with Driveline, a baseball facility that has helped players like Mookie Betts and JP Crawford. Driveline's director of hitting Tanner Stokey gave his observations on Stanton and what he needs to fix.
“His issue is more of a bat-to-ball skill issue,” Tanner Stokey said, via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. “If you go a little big deeper, his issue is he's got some bat path problems.”
Driveline is known to help players improve their bat speed. Mookie Betts' bat speed improved after training with them. JP Crawford took a big leap after training with Driveline as well. Although Stanton's bat speed dropped from 81.3 mph in 2021 to 77.2 mph in 2023, according to Baseball America, his bat speed is still graded well. Stokey said Stanton's swing path is more of a problem than his bat speed.
“His bat path is pretty steep down downhill and pretty flat downhill,” Stokey said, via Kirschner. “When he hits the ball flush, his launch angles are low so he's gonna cut underneath the ball. That's how you get the high pop-up percentage. So the thing with him is it's very clear that there's bat path changes that need to be made.”
The Yankees have Stanton on the books for the next four years, and he counts for $22 million against the luxury tax payroll. They hope that Stanton can rebound in 2024 and be a key part of the lineup again.
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