I was distraught when Luis Severino was removed from the 2017 AL Wild-Card Game. It was only the first inning and the Yankees were trailing 3-0 with just one out and runners on second and third. The season was on the brink of elimination and a base hit would most likely end it before the Yankees ever came to bat in the game.

Joe Girardi raced to the mound as if he tried the Stadium chili fries and needed to get back to the clubhouse. He immediately took the ball from Severino and called on Chad Green, and for a moment I felt a sense of relief.

Green had been the Yankees’ best reliever that season in his transition to the bullpen. In 69 innings, he allowed a measly 34 hits while striking out 103 to only 17 walks. I still trusted David Robertson as much as anyone in the worst of jams and I still believed in Dellin Betances despite his end-of-the-season decline, but this spot was perfect for Green. Green rewarded Girardi’s decision to go to the bullpen for 26 outs by getting out of the inning with the score still 3-0.

Three nights later in Cleveland, Girardi once again called on Green in Game 2 of the ALDS. This time Green entered with the Yankees leading 8-3 in sixth inning and a runner on first with two outs. Sabathia was only at 77 pitches and the bottom of the order was coming up for the Indians, but Girardi went to his bullpen for the last 11 outs of the game. Green had thrown 41 pitches in the wild-card game, and I knew something was off with Green from the very first batter.

Green had trouble putting away the easy-to-put-away Austin Jackson, as Jackson was able to foul away two two-strike pitches before flying out to right field on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Then against the light-hitting catcher Yan Gomes, Green ran into the same problem, as Gomes fouled away three two-strike pitches before doubling to left on a line drive, also on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. With runners on second and third and one out, Green got ahead of 9-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall 0-2 on two foul tips, but Chisenhall was able to foul off four straight two-strike pitches before being hit by a pitch. Green had thrown 21 pitches to the Indians’ 7, 8 and 9 hitters and had been unable to get a single swing-and-miss.

Chisenhall had foul-tipped the first two pitches to fall behind 0-2, which was almost a bit of foreshadowing as the seventh pitch of the at-bat hadn’t hit him, but rather had been tipped off the bat and into Gary Sanchez’s glove. It should have been the third out of the inning, but home plate umpire Dan Iassogna missed the call and Girardi missed his chance to challenge the call for reasons I will never understand even with Sanchez repeatedly telling his manager the ball hit the bat. The bases were now loaded and the lineup was turning over. I felt like I was going to be sick and when Girardi decided to stay with Green to face Francisco Lindor I could feel my stomach rumbling.

Lindor took Green’s first pitch for a ball, and the second pitch — Green’s 23rd of the inning — he took for a ride. Matt Vasgersian screamed, “LINDOR WITH A SWING AND A DRIVE … AND IT’S GONE!” while Sanchez watched Lindor round the bases in disbelief. The Yankees still led 8-7, but no one thought the Yankees were going to hold on to win the game. Certainly not me.

The Yankees lost Game 2 before improbably winning three straight to win the series and shock the top-seeded Indians, though Green wouldn’t pitch in Games 3, 4 or 5. He did look more like his regular-season self in the ALCS against the Astros, allowing one earned run in his three appearances and stranding two inherited runners in Game 6.

But in 2018, even with his overall solid season (94 strikeouts in 75 2/3 innings with a 2.50 ERA), he wasn’t as dominant as he had been in 2017. His hits per nine innings rose from 4.4 to 7.6, he allowed more than double his home run total from the year before (four to nine) and his strikeouts per nine innings dropped from 13.4 to 11.2. He was still very good, but he was no longer unhittable, and while I trusted him more than Jonathan Holder, Luis Cessa, Tommy Kahnle or A.J. Cole (not that being more trustworthy than any of those four means much), I didn’t trust him nearly the way I did the year before. In the ALDS, he allowed one earned run in 3 2/3 innings on four hits and three walks, but didn’t strike out any of the 18 batters he faced, and it was clear something was off with him.

This season the slow decline for Green since the end of the 2017 regular season has taken another step in the wrong direction. A much larger step. He has allowed at least one earned run in six of his 10 appearances, giving up a crooked number in four of those. In four his last six outings, he has taken a loss against the Astros (0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K), put a game out of reach against the White Sox (0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 HR), nearly ruined Easter Sunday against the Royals (0.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K) and almost blew a six-run lead against the Angels (0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR).

Green’s line for the season: 7.2 IP, 15 H, 14 R, 14 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 4 HR, 16.43 ERA, 2.477 WHIP.

The 14 earned runs he’s allowed this season matches his total from 2017 when he made 40 appearances and pitched 69 innings.

With the current state of the Yankees lineup, the team needs to be able to rely on their starting pitching and the bullpen to win games. The starting pitching has lived up to expectations for the last week, but the bullpen continues to be an inconsistent problem, and Green is the biggest problem of all.

His high-leverage appearances have been taken away from him and in an attempt to get him right, Aaron Boone brought him in with a six-run lead on Tuesday night in Anaheim. After recording the final out of the seventh inning, Green loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth before giving up a grand slam. After not getting a single swinging strike on Sunday on 12 pitches, he did manage to get two in his 18 pitches on Tuesday, but in neither game did he record a strikeout, something he hasn’t done now in six of his 10 outings.

Thankfully, the Yankees will get Gary Sanchez back on Wednesday, but they will still be without Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, Miguel Andujar and Aaron Hicks. The Yankees have to play near-perfect baseball with their current roster and make any run they’re able to score stand up to win games and keep pace with the Rays in the division until their regulars return.

I understand success for relievers is year to year, but this isn’t that. Even if Green had declined in performance from 2017 to 2018, it was a small decline. This is his performance falling off a cliff. In the last two weeks alone, he has broken open a 3-3 game for a loss, put a one-run deficit out of reach, helped blow a five-run lead and nearly blew a six-run lead. Right now, the only situation for Green is mop-up duty, in a game it would take a miracle for the Yankees to come back and win, and only being able to pitch in such a situation isn’t worthy of a roster spot.

I expect Green to become the latest Yankee to land on the injured list, whether or not he’s really injured. He needs time to figure it out and the Yankees can no longer afford to let him figure it out at the major league level.

***

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Today is April 24. April 1 was 23 days ago. April 1 was the day Aaron Hicks was initially expected to return to the Yankees lineup from his back injury.

Hicks hurt his back in spring training … riding a bus … for 35 minutes. That’s right, Hicks originally got hurt on February 27 riding the team bus from Tampa to Lakeland for a spring training game.

“I got off the bus and it felt tight; I couldn’t swing,” Hicks said back in spring training. “Came back the next day and it was still tight … [then] played the night game two days later, and that’s kind of where I knew something was wrong.”

On March 1, the stiffness was still present in his lower back while taking batting practice before a game, so the Yankees shut him down. Ten days later on March 11, he received a cortisone shot to help with the pain.

Five days after the cortisone shot, while doing rotational activity exercises on March 16, Hicks complained of the same back stiffness. The following day (March 17), Hicks received a second cortisone shot.

“The first one definitely hit the spot, for sure. I made really big gains on that one,” Hicks said after the second cortisone shot. “The second one, I just feel like it was a little bit more to the left and it needs to be tended to. That was to knock it fully out.”

Despite Hicks not having played in a game in what was now over two weeks, Aaron Boone believes his center fielder could be capable of being in the lineup at the start of the season.

“I think he physically probably will be ready [for Opening Day],” Boone said  even after the second cortisone shot. “We don’t think it’s going to be a long time for Hicks.”

The day of the second cortisone shot, Hicks tells reporters he won’t be playing in the opening series against Orioles (March 28-31), but expects to be in the lineup for the second series of the series against the Tigers on April 1.

Boone recognizes Hicks will have to begin the season on the injured list, but doesn’t think it will be a full 10-day stint.

“He could avoid a full [injured list] stay at the big league level because obviously we can backdate him,” Boone said. “He’ll start on the [injured list].”

Prior to the start of the first game of the season, the Yankees officially announce Hicks is being placed on the 10-day injured list.

On April 5 in Baltimore, Boone gives an update on Hicks.

“[Thursday] I believe he is starting baseball activities. He will be throwing [Thursday],” Boone said, “It’s been about a week or so where he has been feeling really well coming in every day.”

Boone then goes on to say he doesn’t think Hicks will need a full six-week spring training to get back, the same way he originally said he wouldn’t need a full 10-day injured list stint.

“I don’t think it will be six weeks, but he has to get some at-bats,”Boone said. “And once he gets back to the point where he is playing in [minor league] games, it’s not going to be just five or 10 games. He is going to have to play some and get built back up.”

On April 14, Hicks appears at Yankee Stadium. He’s in New York to take care of paperwork for his apartment and provides an update on his status.

“Hitting was a problem for me,” Hicks said before watching the Yankees lose to the White Sox. “Every time I hit [during rehab] was when it would start to fire up and start to be painful. The fact I’m moving forward past that is good.”

Hicks started tee-and-toss two days prior, finally swinging a bat for the first time in a month.

“I’ve been really testing it hard in the cage,” he said. “Putting my A swings into it to make sure it’s game-like.”

Boone, who originally estimated Hicks would return on April 1 was no longer willing to give a return date.

“Timeframe? I don’t know yet, “Boone said. “All I know is he’s doing really well. He seems to be completely healthy.”

Boone then goes on to say Hicks has been past the injury for a couple weeks, causing many to wonder why he is just now beginning to swing a bat.

“It’s been a couple weeks now, at least, where we feel he’s completely past the injury,” Boone said. “The ramp-up has just been a little slow.”

Two days later, on April 16, Hicks hits off a tee and throws on the field before the Yankees’ 8-0 win over the Red Sox. 

“I took some really good swings today,” Hicks said, “Striking the ball good.”

Hicks says he expects to start taking batting practice the next day, or the day after that, but no one is sure when he will actually take batting practice.

“I thought I would miss a couple of [spring training] games,” Hicks added. “Obviously, that didn’t happen.

No, obviously it didn’t happen. It’s now been a week since Hicks expected to soon be taking practice and nearly two months since he first felt lower back stiffness following a 35-minute bus ride. We’re almost three weeks from when Boone said Hicks wouldn’t need a six-week spring training and no one is sure when he will play in a rehab game.

While this entire injured list stint has been a debacle because of the botched timetables provided by Hicks, Boone and the organization, the injury itself is nothing new when it comes to Hicks. His entire career has been marred by disabled and injured list trips for just about every conceivable non-surgery baseball injury.

In 2016, his first season with the Yankees, Hicks missed time due to shoulder bursitis and a hamstring strain, playing in 123 games.

In 2017, he played in only 88 games, going on the disabled twice, once for a right oblique strain and once for a left oblique strain.

In 2018, he got hurt on Opening Day and after one game was on the disabled list with a strained right intercostal muscle. He ended up playing in a career-high 137 regular-season games before once again getting hurt in the postseason and missing two of the four games in the ALDS.

Add in the 22 games Hicks has already missed this season and as a Yankee he’s played in just 348 of a possible 508 regular-season games, or 68.5 percent.

Hicks is going to be a Yankee for the foreseeable future after being extended through 2025 back on Feb. 25 — two days before the historic 35-minute bus ride — with a club option for the 2026 season.

Now 29, having spent his 20s trying to become an everyday major leaguer and then trying to stay off the disabled and injured list once he became one. He was successful at the former and miserably unsuccessful at the latter.

The Yankees have Hicks through at least his age 35 season, and it’s going to take a miracle for him to avoid missing so many games on the other side of 30 the way he has in his prime.

***

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There were times I thought Clint Frazier would never be a Yankee. Then there were times when I thought he would never be a regular everyday player and part of the Yankees’ future. I have to think a lot of Yankees fans felt the same. A combination of Frazier being blocked positionally, frequent injuries and trade speculation made me think I would watch him realize his potential and become an All-Star-caliber player with another franchise.

The never-ending injury bug, which has destroyed the Yankees’ expected lineup, has forced Frazier into a starting role in the outfield and a middle-of-the-order spot in the order. Not only has Frazier responded to this opportunity by finally proving his status as the focal point of the Andrew Miller deal and that he belongs in the majors, he’s proved he belongs in the Yankees’ plans. He doesn’t belong as the headline for some package to acquire a rental starter at the trade deadline or a pitcher with a couple years of control. He belongs in the Yankees outfield.

In 18 games, Frazier has displayed the “legendary bat speed” Brian Cashman raves about. He has a team-leading six home runs and is batting .324/.342/.632. His .975 OPS in 73 plate appearances is even more impressive when you consider he missed virtually all of 2018 and desperately needed more at-bats and time to develop defensively in Triple-A. “He’s not a finished product,” Brian Cashman said on Monday to Mike Francesa. “He never got finished off because he missed an entire developmental year, so his experience at Triple-A is not extensive.” He’s still technically getting his reps in with the RailRiders since the Yankees are essentially them right now, they are just coming in major league games with the RailRiders.

Frazier recently mentioned his confidence is at “an all-time high” right now, and it should be. He has reiterated the “next guy up” slogan the Yankees are using to battle through the absence of Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki on the position player side and Luis Severino and Dellin Betances from the pitching staff. Frazier asked, “Which guy’s going to be the hero tonight? Who’s going to be the one that steps up?” Most nights this season, it’s been him.

On Monday night (early Tuesday morning on the East Coast), Frazier slid awkwardly into second base on a pickoff attempt, rolling his ankle. I was in disbelief, but managed to hold in my anger and frustration to avoid waking up my fiancee and the neighbors, who had been sleeping for hours like normal people who don’t sacrifice their sleep and well-being to watch a baseball team. Was another Yankee really injured? Frazier grabbed his ankle and then hopped around near the base as Aaron Boone and Steve Donahue ran out of the dugout. Frazier was able to persuade Boone and Donahue to let him remain in the game, and after his ankle was tightly wrapped, he stayed in for the final innings, playing left field in for the 12th, 13th and 14th innings. After the game, Frazier said the injury wouldn’t keep him out of the lineup.

“It’s a little sprain, but it’s one of those things where I went through too much last year to not go out there and play. The IL is too full for us, so I’m good. I’m going to keep playing.”

I’m sure those comments frightened Boone, who is most likely going to give Frazier the day off on Tuesday. He was probably going to get the day off already as part of the Yankees’ scheduled off day initiative, which only helps to make more of a mockery out of their injury crisis. But no matter if the overcautious organization holds one of their few true bats out of the lineup for the second game of this nine-game road trip, those are the words you want to hear from your player.

“I kept telling myself, ‘Everything you got.’ Last year, that’s a real injury. [Tonight] I could still go out there, I could still walk, I could still contribute to this team.”

Could you ever envision Aaron Hicks saying something like that?

“I went through too much last year to not continue to stay out on that field. So a lot of things would have to go wrong for me to not play out there.”

All of this made me want to hug Frazier or possibly dye my hair red and get a nose ring like number 77. His words and determination to not miss time serve as a breath of fresh air for a team with the most players on the injured list in the majors, an injured list with players who frequently miss their return dates by weeks and sometimes months.

Frazier knows what it’s like to suffer a serious and significant injury for which there is no timetable for a return to the playing field or a normal livelihood. Thankfully, he was able to return to both. A sprained ankle? That’s not going to keep him out of the lineup if he gets his way. With the way he’s been living up to his first-round potential this season, Yankees fans need him to get his way.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!