Going through this morning, the Yankees signed Randy Grichuk to come off the bench,

and I had some thoughts on that with Jason Dominguez. How do we lead there? And then about an hour before the show, we get this article from NJ.com, from Randy Miller, who spoke with Jean-Carlo Stanton. And I'm going to read a couple quotes, Tiki, give a couple of thoughts, and let's just talk this thing through. Just two weeks ago, when spring training started, we got word, the Yankees are healthy. Yeah. They're full go. Jean-Carlo Stanton, no problem, no biggie. And yet this morning, Stanton has not been re-injured. No, no, no, no. Stanton is ramping up to try to play by probably the end of next week or March for you. I guess March 4th, the end of next week in spring training games. But what Stanton gave, quote-wise, to Randy Miller today makes it feel like he's trying to be heroic and I see it, but I don't know how alarm bells aren't sounding all over Tampa and the Bronx.

So Jean-Carlo Stanton's elbow, he says, and I quote, I can't open a bottle, I can't open a bag of chips, a bag of anything.

That's the way it is.

Aaron Boone added for me, he's the poster child of mentally tough.

I don't know how else to say it's true. Poster child. And Stanton also added that the public outlook would be that I wouldn't be mentally tough if I miss games due to the elbow injury. Now I'm going to read more on the surgery and everything else. Mentally tough. When you hear all those quotes, Tiki, as a former athlete, what the heck is going through you? So to me, what I hear when I hear this is, is one, he's battling this tennis elbow, and he's been battling it for, I think, a few years now. We heard about it mostly last year. But as an athlete, like, you don't admit to those things.

I don't think I would tell anybody that, oh, I can't open a bag of chips.

I'm weak.

But then I also start thinking, what the heck?

How do you swing a bat?

That's exactly it. If you can't open chips, how are your hands strong enough to hold a bat?

But almost feels like arthritis issues that, you know, older people

get when their hands start to break down and they start to get in the joint issues and there's

just a weakness in your joints because of arthritis. I tell you, the one thing that immediately

jumps to my mind is, man, Spencer Jones has a real chance to make his team now as a as a D.H. If he keeps hitting

in spring training like he did when he started the, you know, this season. So I feel like

Jean-Carlo Stanton's issues are maybe being exaggerated and even by him. Because it doesn't

make sense that you can't open chips, but then can swing a bat. Do the motion. We all do it. You pinch the bag and you pull it open. Again, now, if he's talking about like the Hal's chips that are a little thicker bag, maybe I understand. Yeah, but I can't even open those sometimes. Exactly. It has nothing to do with my strength. But some lack of, lack of tennis elbow. It's more like, this thing is really tight.

Let me get some scissors to open this thing. My kid can open up the bag of Doritos, the lace salt and vinegar, no problem. John Carlos Stanton struggling with that, and I have to trust him with a bat in his hands. Now, we see, and we were out there how many times the Yankee Stadium doing 16-hour shows and watching him swing and batting practice and the full velocity.

Now, on not having surgery on the elbow,

Stanton was asked, do you regret not having surgery? And he said, you get the surgery and you can go back to being in the general population in a few months. But my job is to put some of the most force into a batted ball. Okay. I agree with that. I understand. So basically, I'm going to wait on having surgery until after my career. Yeah, I mean, he should because there's no reason to risk potentially not ever getting back that strength in your forearms. Because think of me, look at his forearms. His forearms are massive. He's got Popeye forearms. And so the last thing you want is the atrophy of all those muscles that you've built.

But when you think about it, it's probably the reason that he has this tennis elbow.

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