Two winters before the Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to a $324 million contract last month, they did franchise legend Derek Jeter a favor in December 2017 when he was a new Miami Marlins part-owner/COO and selling off a slugger whose $325 million contract was the richest in baseball history.

The Yankees trading for Giancarlo Stanton was the talk of baseball because was the reigning National League MVP and coming off one of the greatest offensive seasons ever.

Those 59 homers and 132 RBI that Stanton put up in his last season with the Marlins were a reason many Yankees fans viewed him as a disappointment in his first season in New York because he only followed with 38 and 100. He also struck out a lot, was just mediocre in the outfield when he wasn’t DH-ing, and he doesn’t have the smile, personality or pizazz as the guy in right field who could pass as his twin from a distance.

Everyone loves Aaron Judge, and few Yankees fans appear to have embraced Stanton, who was booed a lot at Yankee Stadium in 2018.

Last year was worse for Stanton, who had just 59 regular-season at-bats over 18 games due to two long injured list stints. He suffered a biceps tear in the first series of the season, then hurt his shoulder rehabbing and then suffered a knee injury one week after he finally returned in mid-June. He was out again until mid-September, then during the playoffs he missed three ALCS games in a row with a quad issue.

Year three for Stanton in a Yankees uniform is fast approaching, and manager Aaron Boone already has a hunch that he’s going to get the best of his high-priced slugger in 2020.

“G’s going to have a great year,” Boone predicted on the YES Network’s Yankees Hot Stove. “Obviously the key for him is staying healthy, which was a challenge last year. He had a couple of freak things happen, especially the time he was coming back and he hurt the knee on a funky slide.”

Stanton will begin spring training healthy, and at age 30, he should be in the prime of his career. That could lead to Stanton and Judge living up to some 2018 fan expectations of combining for 100-plus homers.

Although on different teams, they blew past that century mark in ’17, as Stanton’s 59 and Judge’s 52 as a Yankees rookie totaled 111.

Stanton is rearing to go.

“I feel like Giancarlo is in such a good frame of mind,” Boone said. “I felt that way all year last year. I felt like we were seeing that in the limited time he did play in the quality of his at-bats, his focus."

The Yankees need Stanton to live up to expectations because of the huge financial commitment that they made to get him, $295 million over 10 seasons counting the $30 million they’ll get from the Marlins in six installments from 2026-28.

“I feel like he’s in position to go out and have a great year and I’m confident he will," Boone said. "The biggest thing is making sure we can keep him between the lines.”

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.