Giancarlo Stanton has been ravaged by injuries over the years, many of them to his lower body. During an otherwise-smashing Friday night in Houston for the Yankees, his old injury bug seemingly popped up yet again. With Stanton at second base, J.C. Escarra singled to left field, off the wall at Daikin Park. Stanton advanced to third but it was obvious watching that he was not moving well.

Stanton immediately left the game, replaced by Randal Grichuk. It’s obviously too soon to speculate. With any luck, it is something minor and the club is just being careful with Stanton who, while he hasn’t been on fire at the plate, is still off to a solid start and poses a dangerous power threat to opposing pitchers.

The YES booth wasted no time considering roster implications in the event Stanton has to go on the IL. Michael Kay quickly suggested that the club’s move will be to greatly increase Paul Goldschmidt’s playing time, with him and Ben Rice covering first base and designated hitter. Anthony Volpe is expected to return from the shelf himself soon, so the roster machinations might discourage the Yankees from calling up a more long-term answer like Jasson Domínguez. Someone else on the 40-man roster like Oswaldo Cabrera might be more likely until Volpe’s rehab assignment ends. We’ll find out soon enough.

Stanton hasn’t played anything close to a full season since 2021, when he appeared in 139 games. Unfortunately, Big G going down with something was almost inevitable. For so many reasons, hopefully he’s back sooner rather than later. Stanton sits 44 home runs short of 500. Every missed game makes that bit of baseball immortality more out of reach.