The Yankees have gone full Mets with their injuries. Hate to see it. Gary Sanchez has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain, the Yankees announced. The move is retroactive to yesterday. Kyle Higashioka has been called up in a corresponding move.
Sanchez reported tightness in his calf following Monday’s game and claimed it was nothing serious. He served as the DH on Tuesday and pinch-hit late Wednesday, and yesterday was an off-day. The Yankees did not announce the severity of the injury or a timetable for Sanchez’s return.
Gary is the 12th (!) Yankee on the injured list. Five-ninths of their starting lineup is on the shelf at the moment. Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and Luke Voit are the only projected regulars still standing. This is getting ridiculous. Here’s the injury list:
- Miguel Andujar (shoulder)
- Dellin Betances (shoulder)
- Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery)
- Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery)
- Ben Heller (Tommy John surgery)
- Aaron Hicks (back)
- Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery)
- CC Sabathia (knee, heart)
- Gary Sanchez (calf)
- Luis Severino (shoulder)
- Giancarlo Stanton (biceps)
- Troy Tulowitzki (calf)
The Ellsbury, Gregorius, Heller, and Montgomery injuries carried over from last year. Same with Sabathia, who had offseason surgeries and is due back this weekend. Andujar’s injury was kinda fluky — he got hurt diving back into a base — and I can’t imagine anyone is surprised Tulowitzki got hurt.
That said, this has reached the point where the Yankees have to look at their training staff and methods to see what can be improved. How many muscle pulls can one team suffer in a short period of time before you look into whether there’s a systematic problem? Also, it would be nice if Aaron Boone stopped downplaying literally every injury. Just tell it like it is, please.
Anyway, Sanchez is hitting .268/.333/.732 (180 wRC+) with a team-leading six homers on the young season, and he’s looked much more like 2017 Sanchez than 2018 Sanchez. Now the Yankees will be without him for at least nine more days, which is bad news for a depleted lineup and (hot take) bad news for the pitching staff as well given Gary’s framing and game-calling.
Sabathia is expected back this weekend and Stanton started swinging a bat Wednesday, so he might not be too far away. Still, the 12 players on the injured list combined for +25.8 WAR last season and we could’ve reasonably expected similar (or better) production from most of those guys this year. The injuries are becoming a crisis.