New York Yankees universe is seeing visions of a championship contender

They had Pride and Pinstripes, as Well

The Yankees power was alive and well in 2017. They led baseball with 241 home runs—16th highest of all time—and posted a run differential (plus-198) higher than those of the Red Sox, Astros, and Dodgers.

But while it takes a team to create a home run record, the offense revolved around three men: Didi Gregorius (25 HR), Gary Sanchez (33) and The Judge (52). To these, the Yanks added Stanton.

Slashing .281/.376/.631 while hitting a world-leading 59 homers was only the first of his two MVP performances, though. The second was manipulating the Marlins for his, and the Yankees, benefit.

Here’s a quote from the fantastic SI article by Ben Reiter I assume everyone is reading this has read by now:

"On Dec. 5, Stanton met the Marlins’ new owner, face-to-face, for the first time. He flew to Miami and sat down in the manager’s office in Marlins Park across from both [Owner Derek] Jeter and [GM Michael] Hill. He told [Agent Joel] Wolfe to stay home. “I didn’t want any proper business talk, any buffering,” he says. “Let’s just get it out, raw, the real s—.” They told Stanton he had two options. They had worked hard to come to terms with the Cardinals and the Giants. He could pick one of them, and soon, or he could stay in Miami as they traded away all of his friends and teammates. “This is not going to go how you guys think it will go,” Stanton said. “I’m not going to be forced somewhere, on a deadline, just because it’s convenient for you guys…This may not go exactly how I planned. But it’s definitely not going to go how you have planned.”"

Strong Stuff

All of which led to this two days later:

"As he stood on the beach on Dec. 7, his phone rang. It was his agent, Joel Wolfe. “You’re not going to believe this, G, but we got a deal,” Wolfe said. “The Yankees.” “Let’s do it,” Stanton said. “You sure you don’t need a night to sleep on it?” “If you want me to take a night, I’ll take a night,” Stanton said. “The answer’s going to be the same. Do it.”"

His addition has the baseball world agog and rightly so. It is fair to think his presence in the line-up will further deepen it, making it that much more dangerous. But the fans know a secret: The Yankees offense is not just adding Stanton’s power bat, but Greg Bird’s.

This is something far too many outsiders are failing to see.