Most of the people on Earth were not alive in 1961.

"You know what Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were going to be, in addition to being the biggest bookends the Yankees had ever had: They were going to be Mantle and Maris 2.0 or even more in a home run world."

Meh.

 

"It was in 1961 that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Mickey hit 54. After that it would be nearly 60 years until the Yankees would enter a season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes. "

Actually, in 1962 the Yankees entered the season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes.

Those two guys were Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

So the Yankees had to wait one season.

Then the same can be said of every subsequent year until 1967.

Right?

Yeah, I know that's not what you meant, but it's what you said.

 

I got another one, genius: 2011.

Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones.

Again, I know this is not what you meant. You meant power hitters in their prime where the expectation was, quite possibly, 100 HRs between them.

But that's not what you said, professional writer.

"That was 2018. Judge was coming off a 52-homer season. Stanton was coming off a 59-homer season in Miami. So that was 111 home runs between them, at different ends of the East Coast, four fewer than Mickey and Roger hit in ’61."

Damn, man.

1961, 1986, 2004.

Even 2004 is ancient history and now you want to talk about a team from 1961.

I know all about the1961 Yankees. Johnny Blanchard with 21 home runs off the bench.

What does it have to do with anything?

 

"The big guys who combined for 111 home runs in the baseball season of 2017 have combined to hit 108 in their three seasons together in the Bronx."

I mean ... we know.

It's not easy to hit home runs when you're not playing.

 

"Three years later the most intense pressure on them isn’t to hit home runs, it is to stay on the field. I hear all the time that the various injuries they’ve suffered happen all the time to guys their size. Really? How come they didn’t happen to a power forward named David Winfield? You know how many games Winfield missed in his first eight seasons with the Yankees? 89. Judge beat that in 2018 and ’19 alone. Stanton over the last two years has missed 181."

I don't know why Dave Winfield was relatively healthy when compared to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

Neither do you.

I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who stayed healthy, and I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who were unable to stay healthy.

 

"It is why the idea that they are going to play together for a long time, and hit all the home runs we thought they were going to hit, seems less and less sustainable."

Ha ha. No kidding. 

 

"Maybe the Yankees win a World Series or two before a walk year for Aaron Judge. But if they don’t, and Judge is still here, we would be looking at three players — Judge, Stanton, Cole — taking up $100 million of payroll. How is that sustainable going forward, especially since all three of them would be past 30 by then?"

It's sustainable because the Yankees have a current net worth of $5 billion. 

You know this.

What is going on here?

"It seems impossible that the Yankees could find a taker for Stanton no matter how much of his contract they were willing to pick up, not after we’ve seen Stanton play a grand total of 41 regular-season games out of the 222 the Yankees played over the past two seasons, which basically means one-fifth."

Not at all.

If the Yankees pick up, say, ninety percent of his salary, then every team in baseball would want Giancarlo Stanton.

Think A.J. Burnett. 

"And Judge? After hitting those 52 home runs and becoming the face of the Yankees and one of the fresh faces of baseball in 2017, he has hit 63 since. He missed 50 games one season and 60 games the next and would have missed 100 at least if there had been a full 162 in 2020, not a 60-game season that saw Judge play less than half of those games."

Right.

Stanton and Judge are injury-prone.

Which is why they haven't combined for as many home runs as Mantle and Maris hit 59 years ago.

Got it. 

 

"The Yankees are stuck with that contract. For a designated hitter. Cashman said the other day that because they have Stanton locked up until the 12th of Never, they had no room for Kyle Schwarber, who would have been a dream — and left-handed hitting — DH at the new Yankee Stadium, an old-fashioned lefty hitter with home run pop on a team that is righty heavy."

Staggering logic.

An injury-prone left-handed hitter who hit .188 last year and is a career .230 batting average is a dream.

It totally sounds like a dream come true for Schwarber to play half his games at Yankees Stadium. In exchange for 5 additional home runs, you'll get 200 strike outs and 300 into-the-shift ground balls. The Giambi/Teixeira Highway to Hell.

Besides, the lefty/righty thing is outdated in the era of the Super Ball.

Most of Judge's home runs go to center field or right field. Stanton pretty much the same, I think.

 

"If Stanton even had a slightly manageable deal, which he sure doesn’t, maybe you could move him. He doesn’t have that kind of deal. It would be like moving the Stadium itself.

No one would have thought this possible a few years ago, but maybe one of these days — and soon — the Yankees decide that Judge is the one who has to go."

It's looking too far into the future.

Maybe Stanton is about to win back-to-back MVPs and Judge is going to win back-to-back World Series MVPs. If so, they're not going anywhere.

I don't know if Stanton and Judge can stay healthy. I am confident they will be productive on the field if they're healthy.

I know two things for sure:

1. Judge is very popular with the fans. If this continues, the Yankees will sign him.
2. The Yankees can afford to pay Stanton, Cole, and Judge at the same time. 

Just like the Ellsbury contract didn't matter and the ARod contract didn't matter, the Stanton contract doesn't matter.