Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton 'not too sure' when he can resume baseball activities

TAMPA, Fla. — Some three hours after Gerrit Cole expressed “concern” regarding a barking right elbow and the possibility of needing what would be season-ending Tommy John surgery, Giancarlo Stanton addressed both of his ailing elbows.

Like Cole, he was not dripping with optimism.

“I’m not too sure,” Stanton said late Saturday morning of when he might be able to start baseball activities. “It’s considered severe in both elbows, so it’s going to be [getting] to a point of pain tolerance and go from there.”

And Stanton made clear, he is not close to that point.

The designated hitter arrived for spring training Feb. 16 with what manager Aaron Boone that day described as “tennis elbow,” which Stanton on Feb. 17 characterized as “tears in your tendon.”

Stanton returned to Tampa on Friday after leaving early on the morning of Feb. 24 to New York for what the Yankees said were “personal” reasons, reasons not related to his condition.

Stanton, who declined Saturday to go into detail on those reasons — other than to say they are still “in the process” of being taken care of — while in New York continued with his treatment. That included two PRP injections. He is slated to return to New York Monday for a third round of injections but is expected to return to Tampa shortly thereafter.

When he reported for camp, Stanton said he had not swung a bat in “three to four weeks,” and the 35-year-old on Saturday indicated that isn’t something likely to happen for some time.

In saying the elbows feel “definitely better” than they did two weeks before, Stanton said at the moment he was standing talking to reporters he didn’t feel pain in them, but “if I were to grab anything” or do “any regular [movements]” when it came to day-to-day activities with his arms, he would feel that pain.

Stanton dealt with the condition much of last season, particularly in the second half, which includes the postseason when the DH led the offensive, hitting .273 with seven homers, 16 RBIs and a 1.048 OPS in 14 games as the Yankees reached their first World Series since 2009.

Stanton said at the start of the spring, and reiterated on Saturday, that is something, once he returns — if he returns — he’ll likely have to deal with the rest of the season.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a 100% healed thing,” Stanton said. “When we started up, it’ll be just deal with it. Similar to last year.”

It is a matter of pain tolerance, and he is not yet at the place that it can be tolerated.

“Pain is pain,” Stanton said. “You deal with that one thing, I’m fine on that aspect. Just prep your mind every day [that] it’s what you have do. But if it’s pain in my grip strength, if my grip strength isn’t back yet, I think that will be the ticket. I’m not worried about waking up, ‘hey, how’s my pain today?’ That’s understood it’s going to be there.”

Speaking earlier in the week, general manager Brian Cashman said surgery for Stanton would be “a last resort.”

Stanton, obviously, agrees.

“That would take me out of the season if I did that,” Stanton said.

He said the condition improved in the offseason and he was able to go through a fairly normal winter workout regimen, but the discomfort started again in January when he started “ramping up”

With Stanton set to start the season on the injured list, and with no clarity on when he might return, he question now becomes who will be the primary DH. As a way to conserve Aaron Judge in the early part of the season, he’ll likely get some days at DH but the primary duties could be spread between a pair of unproven hitters at the big-league level in the righty-swinging Everson Pereira and the lefty-swinging Ben Rice.

The Yankees have been exploring the market all spring for another righthanded bat and expect those efforts to redouble in the coming days, if they haven’t already.

“I absolutely hate this,” said Stanton who, when the season starts, will have spent time on the injured list each of the last seven seasons. “I’m going to get back as soon as possible, but when that is [I don’t know].”