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The World Series trophy is one of the only things missing from Giancarlo Stanton’s resume after he won the American League Championship Series MVP while leading his New York Yankees to a five-game victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
And he’s looking to change that.
“It’s a special moment for me,” Stanton said of winning ALCS MVP, per ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. “It’s a special time. But this ain’t the trophy I want. I want the next one.”
Stanton has a league MVP, Home Run Derby title, five All-Star selections and two Silver Sluggers in his career, but he is now four wins away from his first title. And the Yankees are four wins away from their first title since 2009.
New York is largely in this position because of Stanton’s individual brilliance, as he launched home runs in Games 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the series against Cleveland. While the Bronx Bombers feature no shortage of star power with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Rizzo, among others, the Guardians’ inability to keep Stanton in the ballpark proved costly.
It was more of the same for the slugger, who now has 16 home runs in 36 postseason games for the Yankees.
He is also hitting .294 in these playoffs, which is much better than his .233 mark in the regular season and makes it all the more difficult to deal with his team’s lineup when he is bringing more than just power to the table.
The winner of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets will be the only thing standing in the way of Stanton and the trophy he wants, and another performance like he had in the ALCS may be too much for either team to stop.
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