Another day, another injury. And it was maybe the worst injury of all. The Yankees lost Aaron Judge to a “pretty significant” left oblique strain yesterday. Obliques are rarely “spend ten days on the injured list and come back good as new” injuries. It’s going to take some time for Judge and his massive oblique to heal up, and then get up to game speed.
“I truly feel it will make it sweeter after going through all of this,” Aaron Boone told Joel Sherman following yesterday’s win. “We have a resilient group. We are getting plenty of good news with players making progress working their way back. We will find our way through this. As I told Aaron before he left, this will make it all sweeter when we get to where we want to go.”
The injuries are getting comical at this point, but what can you do? Just cross your fingers and hope no one else gets hurt. On the bright side, the Yankees have won four of their last five games and five of their last seven games. Keep it going, next man up, etc. etc. Here are today’s split squad lineups:
New York Yankees
1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. DH Luke Voit
3. CF Brett Gardner
4. RF Clint Frazier
5. LF Mike Tauchman
6. 3B Gio Urshela
7. 1B Mike Ford
8. C Austin Romine
9. SS Tyler Wade
LHP James Paxton
Kansas City Royals
1. 2B Whit Merrifield
2. SS Adalberto Mondesi
3. LF Alex Gordon
4. 1B Hunter Dozier
5. RF Jorge Soler
6. 3B Chris Owings
7. DH Lucas Duda
8. C Martin Maldonado
9. CF Billy Hamilton
RHP Jorge Lopez
It is a bit cloudy in New York, but otherwise it’s a pleasant afternoon for a ballgame. Today’s homestand finale will begin at 1:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.
Injury Update: Gary Sanchez (calf) will play his rehab game with Low-A Charleston tomorrow and, as long as everything goes well, he’ll join the Yankees on Tuesday and be activated Wednesday. Triple-A Scranton and Double-A Trenton are both on the road tomorrow. Charleston’s the closest affiliate for a warm weather game … Jacoby Ellsbury (hip) has “had some things” pop up that have slowed his rehab. He’s yet to ramp up baseball activities. Congrats to the Steinbrenners on the insurance money … Gleyber Torres is fine. Just a rest day.
Roster Move: In case you missed it earlier, Thairo Estrada was called up to replace Judge on the roster. Wade is the backup outfielder right now. Also, the Thairo call-up announcement was kinda weird yesterday. “The Yankees expect INF Thairo Estrada to replace OF Aaron Judge on the roster tomorrow,” is how they announced it. Usually they explicitly say this player will be called up, not they “expect” this player to be called up. That leads me to believe Brian Cashman was working the phones hard looking for another outfielder after the Judge injury.