An offseason spent transforming his body still was not enough to steer Giancarlo Stanton clear of the injured list.
The Yankees placed Stanton on the 10-day IL on Sunday with a left hamstring strain that he suffered running the bases on Saturday night.
Infielder Oswald Peraza was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take his roster spot.
Stanton had gotten lighter over the offseason in hopes of keeping his lower body fresh, and the early results were encouraging. In 69 games, he was batting .246 with 18 home runs and a 120 OPS-plus.
But as the 34-year-old rounded third base to score from second on Gleyber Torres’ double Saturday night, he winced, and by Sunday morning, he was undergoing imaging to reveal the extent of his hamstring strain.
Stanton missed six weeks last season with a left hamstring strain and just over a month in 2020 with the same injury.
Had Jasson Dominguez not just landed on the IL at Triple-A for a significant oblique strain that is expected to keep him out two months, he likely would have been the replacement for Stanton.
Instead, the Yankees called up Peraza, who missed the start of the season with a shoulder strain and upon returning has struggled to hit with SWB, batting .178 with a .528 OPS.
The Yankees are likely to rotate different players into the DH spot, mostly Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, while using some more of Trent Grisham in center field