LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (CBSNewYork) — Giancarlo Stanton said he put the Yankees on his trade wish list after admiring them from afar.
“Seeing their young, dynamic group, the way they flow together on the field, how they never give up, never quit, the atmosphere, there’s the storied franchise,” the slugger said at his introductory news conference Monday at baseball’s winter meeting. “There’s not much you can say about why you wouldn’t want to be there.”
The Yankees acquired the reigning National League MVP from the Miami Marlins for second baseman Starlin Castro and pitching prospects Jorge Guzman and Jose Devers. Stanton had a no-trade clause in his megacontract, meaning he had a say-so in where he was dealt.
He said he met with the Marlins and told them he was not interested in being part of new CEO Derek Jeter’s rebuild. Miami had reached deals with the Giants and Cardinals, but Stanton rejected them.
MORE: Sweeny: Stanton-Judge Possibilities Are Endless — Just Ask Maris, Mantle Families
“I’m glad to be here and part of the New York Yankees,” said Stanton, who batted .281 with 59 homers last season. “This is going to be a great new chapter in my life and my career.
“This has been quite the experience, quite the road to get here. When I signed up in Miami, I wanted things to work out, and I had a good vision there. But sometimes things just spiral out of place and you have to find a new home.”
In New York, Stanton will team up with Aaron Judge, the only other major league player since 2013 to hit more than 50 homers in a season.
“We’re excited to get better together and use our talents together, because we’re very similar, and we’re going to learn from each other and make each other better,” Stanton said of Judge.
MORE: Palladino: Boone’s Job As Neophyte Yankees Manager Just Got A Lot Easier
General manager Brian Cashman said the trade puts the Yankees one step closer to winning a world championship. They fell one win short of reaching the World Series last season.
“These are exciting times,” he said. “Every day our baseball operations department, under the guidance of the Steinbrenner family, are trying to find ways to improve the club. Sometimes they’re in big ways; sometimes they’re in small ways.
“That’s part of our job is to find pieces that can help us take further steps, pieces that can play a role in the future efforts to try to find a way to be that last team standing.”
New manager Aaron Boone said he believes Stanton will mesh well with the rest of the Yankees.
“As much as we are excited to have the National League MVP join our lineup and all that goes with that and all the expectations we have for him to come in and play so well at Yankee Stadium, we have a group of young men that we’re so excited about what they bring from a character standpoint in that room,” he said. “We feel like we really have a special culture brewing, and we feel like adding Giancarlo — yes, the player, but just as much the person — to that room, he’s only going to make it even stronger.”
No comments:
Post a Comment