NorthJersey.com-USA TODAY NETWORK

During his first season with the New York Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton often failed to live up to expectations, but there was apparently a good reason for that.

On Monday, Stanton revealed that the hamstring injury he played through last year “was quite the factor” to his 2018 campaign, per Coley Harvey of ESPN, and that it “wasn’t the best for me.”

The good news is that Stanton said his hamstring injury was fully healed up late in the season.

His stats at the end of the season improved, too. Overall, Stanton batted .266 with 38 home runs and 100 RBI with an incredible 211 strikeouts. But in the final 15 games of the 2018 campaign he hit .271 with five home runs and 14 RBI — a far more productive clip than his seasonal average.

Hopefully for Stanton and the Yankees’ sake, he can stay healthy this coming season. New York might just be unbeatable if Stanton can get back to his 2017 MVP form.

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