One of the biggest stories of baseball’s off-season was home run champ Giancarlo Stanton becoming a New York Yankee. Stanton led the majors last year with 59 HRs with the Miami Marlins.

Is it possible that Stanton is “striking out” in his short tenure with the Yanks? Figuratively speaking, we are only 14 games into the season and the jury is still out about whether or not Stanton will have a major impact on the Bronx Bombers. A 7-7 record is nothing to get too concerned about two weeks into the 2018 season.

But from a literal sense, Stanton is “striking out” with the Yankees; in fact, he leads the majors with 25 strikeouts in 59 at-bats. He has already had two games this season where he struck out five times (more on that in a moment). On the plus side, he has hit three home runs.

But let’s look at the strikeouts. Last season Stanton’s current teammate, Aaron Judge became the first player in MLB history to have 50 or more home runs and over 200 strikeouts in the same season (he had 52 HRs and 208 strikeouts). With 25 strikeouts in 14 games, Stanton is on a pace to strike out 289 times this season… the MLB record is 223 strikeouts in a season by Mark Reynolds with Arizona in 2009.

Here’s a look at the players who hit 50 or more home runs in a season and had the most strikeouts that same season.

Aaron Judge, NY Yankees, 2017, 52 HRs-208 strikeouts
Chris Davis, Baltimore, 2013, 53 HRs-199 strikeouts
Cecil Fielder, Detroit, 1990, 51 HRs-182 strikeouts
Ryan Howard, Philadelphia, 2006, 58 HRs-181 strikeouts
Sammy Sosa, Cubs, 1998, 66 HRs-171 strikeouts
Sammy Sosa, Cubs, 1999, 63 HRs-171 strikeouts
Sammy Sosa, Cubs, 2000, 50 HRs-168 strikeouts
Giancarlo Stanton, Miami, 2017, 59 HRs-163 strikeouts
Mark McGwire, two teams, 1997, 58 HRs-159 strikeouts
Mark McGwire, St. Louis, 1998, 70 HRs-155 strikeouts
Sammy Sosa, Cubs, 2001, 64 HRs-153 strikeouts

For the record, the fewest number of strikeouts in a season by a player who hit 50 or more home runs is 42 by Johnny Mize. He hit 51 HRs in 1947. He is the only player with 50 or more home runs in a season that had less than 50 strikeouts that same campaign.

As mentioned above, Stanton has already struck out five times in a game twice this season. The MLB record is three games with five or more strikeouts in a game, held by Ray Lankford in 1998.

Stanton became the 14^th player in MLB history to strike out five of more times in a game multiple times in his career. Sammy Sosa holds the MLB record… he fanned five or more times in four games in his career. Lankford is next with his three games. The 12 players who did it twice in their careers are: Jim Thome, Mark Teixeira, Ron Swoboda, Stanton, Richie Sexson, George Scott, Alex Rios, Benny Kauff, Andruw Jones, Deron Johnson, Chris Davis and Dick Allen.

One last note: Sosa, Lankford and Brian Dozier are the only three players in baseball history to strikeout five times in a game and hit a home run that same game.

Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp