The Yankees have suffered their first injury of the year. Earlier today Joe Girardi told reporters in Tampa that Tyler Austin will miss a minimum of six weeks with a fracture in his left foot. He suffered the injury when he fouled a pitch into his foot during batting practice. Austin will be in a boot for the next three weeks.
As these things tend to do, the Chris Carter situation has worked itself out. I don’t mean to make light of Austin’s injury. It really sucks. Point is, depth is a good thing, and the Yankees brought Carter on board just in case something like this happened. Losing Austin does cost the team a good piece of first base and outfield depth, however.
Austin, 25, hit .241/.300/.458 (102 wRC+) with five home runs during his 31-game big league cameo last season. He also hit .294/.392/.524 (161 wRC+) with 17 homers in 107 games between Double-A and Triple-A to earn the call-up. Austin struggled quite a bit the last few years before getting his career back on track in 2016. It was fun to watch.
This is a fluke injury, and the timing means once Austin’s foot heals, he’s still going to need time to get ready for game action. He basically has to go through Spring Training. I suppose the good news is this happened early in camp. Six weeks from today still isn’t Opening Day. Hopefully Austin will be ready to go at some point in April.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.