(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 New York Yankees acquires powerhitter Giancarlo Stanton
Nederlands
 LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (USA) -
Giancarlo Stanton, who this season led the Major League in homeruns and was named the National League's Most Valuable Player, will play for the New York Yankees in 2018.
The powerhitter was officially introduced by the Yankees on Monday (December 11) on the first full day of the Winter Meetings, which take place this year in Lake Buena Vista.
In the past few days, it already was reported that a deal had been reached between the Yankees and the Miami Marlins.
On Monday, the trade was confirmed and officially announced.
Stanton comes to the Yankees in exchange for second baseman Starlin Castro and minor league-prospects Jorge Guzman (righthanded pitcher) and José Devers (infielder).
In September of this year, former Yankee short stop Derek Jeter became the co-owner of the Marlins and became the Chief Executive Officer of the club.
...Giancarlo Stanton is introduced during the 2011...
...European Big League Tour in Amsterdam (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The 28-year old Stanton led the Major League this season in several categories, including homeruns (59) and runs batted in (132).
Stanton batted .281 and scored 123 runs.
For his offensive production this year, Stanton won his second Hank Aaron Award.
Stanton now becomes a teammate of the reigning homerun champion of the American League, which was led this year by Aaron Judge, who hit 52 homeruns.
With that total, Judge set a rookie-record.
He was named Rookie of the Year and finished second in the voting for Most Valuable Player.
Stanton has a no-trade clause in his contract, meaning he has to approve a trade.
It was reported that he would approve a trade only to the Yankees, Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stanton made his Major League-debut in 2010 with Florida Marlins and has played for the club ever since.
In 2011, Giancarlo Stanton was one of the Major League-players, who participated in the European Big League Tour, which was organized by Dutch professional pitcher Rick van den Hurk.
Stanton then instructed young baseball-players in Amsterdam and Utrecht.
In the last weeks of the season, including the postseason, Didi Gregorius was batting third or fourth in the line-up of the Yankees frequently.
He batted between powerhitters Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez when he batted third, or behind these two when he batted in fourth place.
This season, the Amsterdam-born Gregorius batted .287 with 25 homeruns and batted in 87 runs, while scoring 73.
Gregorius succeeded Derek Jeter as short stop in 2015.
With the addition of Stanton, the batting order surely will look differently next season.
But that is up to Aaron Boone, who was named the new Manager of the team on December 5.
Boone succeeded Joe Girardi, whose contract was not renewed after ten seasons.
(December 11)
Related Article:
 Boone new Manager Yankees; Meulens stays with Giants. (December 5)
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