Have you ever played “I’m going on a picnic …”? One person starts the game by saying, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing …” and that person finishes the sentence with a word beginning with the letter a. For example, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples.” The next person has to repeat what the first person is bringing and add an item beginning with the letter b. “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples and bananas.” The next person repeats what the first and second items were and adds an item beginning with the letter c. The game continues with each person adding a new item throughout the alphabet. The goal of the game is to remember every item and if you’re unable to, you’re out. The Yankees’ injured list has become one frustrating game of “I’m going on a picnic …” and I’m having trouble remembering who’s on it and what for.

The Yankees knew they were going to be without Didi Gregorius for at least half the season following offseason Tommy John surgery. So before the first pitch of 2019, the Yankees were aware they would be without their starting shortstop, best infield defender and middle-of-the-order left-handed bat.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius.

Even though the Yankees go into every season knowing CC Sabathia will eventually miss a few starts due to to his lingering knee issues, no one expected him to have to undergo a heart procedure. The procedure delayed his schedule and timing to be ready for the start of the season, so the Yankees would have to plan for one of their depth starters to make at least one start in Sabathia’s early-season absence.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius and CC Sabathia.

What seemed like minutes after he signed a four-year, $40 million extension, Luis Severino went to start a spring training game and complained of a shoulder issue. An MRI showed no structural damage, only inflammation, and he was shut down. The Yankees weren’t about to push their 25-year-old ace who they just extended, and it was announced Severino would miss at least the first month of the season.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia and Luis Severino.

Right after Severino went down, so too did Aaron Hicks — also a new member of the Yankees extension club after signing for seven years and $70 million. This injury was the least surprising of the group since Hicks has never played a full season in the majors despite approaching age 30, and while it wasn’t an oblique or hamstring injury this time, it was a back injury, which would cost him at least the first couple weeks of April.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino and Aaron Hicks.

Dellin Betances began spring training late after the birth of his first child and was trying to play catchup through March. His fastball velocity was shockingly in the 80s and for someone who frequently reaches triple digits, it was a major red flag. Betances tried to play down the radar reads citing his history of gaining velocity as both the spring and season went on, but it wasn’t long until he would hit the injured list with a shoulder impingement, putting him on the shelf to begin the year.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks and Dellin Betances.

Early on Monday, news broke there would be another Yankee added to the injured list: Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton had swung out of his shoes, like always, on a 3-1 pitch on Sunday, fouling the ball straight back and then was seen flexing his arm and wincing a bit before continuing his at-bat. He initially thought it was a cramp, so he remained in the game, but it turned out to be a bicep strain, which will shut him down completely for the next 10 days.

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks, Dellin Betances and Giancarlo Stanton.

I thought it was odd Miguel Andujar wasn’t in the lineup on Monday night, but given the way he looked at the plate in the first three games, it seemed like a normal day off and a chance to keep the red-hot DJ LeMahieu in the game. Then just before first pitch, it came out Andujar hurt his shoulder diving back to third base on Sunday. Why was he leading so far off third base with the bases loaded and two outs to begin with? I’m not sure. But either way, Andujar hurt his shoulder and would also be placed on the injured list. (After the game, Boone announced Andujar’s injury is a labrum tear and could require surgery which would end his season after only three games played.)

The Yankees’ injured list is Didi Gregorius, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks, Dellin Betances, Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar.

When Gleyber Torres pulled off his glove on Monday night and began shaking his left hand, I immediately thought the worst. Torres had been unable to come with Gary Sanchez’s throw down to second and his glove hand had become part of the play. Torres remained on one knee for a brief moment as the Tri-state area held its collective breath. Would another Yankee really land on the injured list? Thankfully, no.

Adding Torres to the list on the same day Stanton and Andujar landed on it would have been funny in the least funny way ever. It most likely would have made me cry, considering I was already on the verge of tears after the series loss to the Orioles coupled with the already lengthy and absurd list of injured Yankees. Right now, 28 percent of the Yankees’ would-be roster is on the injured list. Here is what they’re missing.

1. Starting shortstop, 27 HR, OPS
2. No. 5 starter, 9-7, 3.65 ERA
3. No. 1 starter, 19-8, 3.39 ERA
4. Starting center fielder,
5. Best reliever, 2.70 ERA, 115 Ks in 66 2/3 innings
6. Starting left fielder/designated hitter, .852 OPS
7. Starting third baseman, 27 HR, .855 OPS

Six of the seven injured Yankees are expected back at some point with Andujar’s status still unclear. On paper, the Yankees roster was the favorite to win the 2019 World Series, but that paper has now been spilled on, crumbled up and shredded. If Andujar doesn’t return it will mean the 2019 Yankees won’t play a single game at full strength.

Fortunately, the Yankees have somewhat of enough depth to cover for these injuries for the time being though it’s impossible to fully cover for the production currently on the shelf. All the early-season off days help, and while no one wants any game to annoyingly be postponed, a few rainouts with rescheduled dates for later in the season would certainly be welcomed given the Yankees’ current situation.

Injuries happen, and even if this amount is laughable, no one is going to feel sorry for the Yankees. For now, it’s up to a lineup closely resembling that of a spring training road trip to win games, and that means beating up on the American League’s worst even without your best.

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

I didn’t think it was possible to like Aaron Judge more than I already do, but after Saturday’s embarrassing loss to the Orioles, the face of the Yankees criticized his team’s effort.

“Every game is important because you can go at the end of the year and look back at how many missed opportunities and games that we should have won, but we just didn’t come up with the big hit, a costly error, stuff like that. Every single game is important.”

Every single game is important. Every single game is important! EVERY SINGLE GAME IS IMPORTANT!

It’s the first time I have heard a player show real urgency this early in the season, as if the team finally realized there’s no extra credit given in the standings for wins after the All-Star break. Losses on March 30 are just as destructive to a team’s chance at winning the division and avoiding the one-game playoff as a loss in Game 161, and I was ecstatic to hear Judge has the same perspective on early-season games I have always believed in.

Getting upset with the lineup construction in the first game of the season or being bothered by the bullpen usage in the third game of the season is entirely acceptable. When you play in the same division as one of the only other true powers in the entire league, you can’t afford to give games away, let alone give them away to an Orioles team expected to be one of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball. But that’s exactly what the Yankees did on Saturday and Sunday. An inability to hit with runners in scoring position, defensive mistakes and miscues, a lineup built with no logic and bullpen management without a plan cost them two games against an inferior opponent. These three games might have been the first three games of the 2019 season, but they felt like Games 163, 164 and 165 of the 2018 season.

Last season, the Yankees went 23-14 against last-place teams, which is what the Orioles will end up being this season. The Red Sox went 32-5. The difference there is nine games. The Yankees lost the division by eight games. The Yankees’ being unable to beat the teams they should beat cost them the division, pushed them into the wild-card game, forced them to use Luis Severino in the wild-card game rather than Game 1 of the ALDS and gave the Red Sox home-field advantage in the ALDS. If the Yankees win the division, the Red Sox have to use Chris Sale in the wild-card game rather than Game 1 of the ALDS and Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS are at Yankee Stadium. And oh yeah, maybe the Red Sox flat-out lose the wild-card game and the Yankees face the A’s in the division series.

Sure, the Red Sox had a special team last season, a team which started out 17-2 and ended up with 108 wins before beating the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers in the postseason. But the Yankees, despite all their injuries and second-half slump, were good enough to hang with them for most of the regular season. The difference in setting up October was their play against the worst teams in the league.

I didn’t think the Yankees’ losing ways against the league’s worst would continue into 2019. I thought the way the division unfolded last year, followed by the humiliation of being run out of their own stadium in the postseason, and ultimately, another year of experience for the young core would change the team’s overall approach to the season.

With nine games against the Orioles and Tigers to open the season, I thought the Yankees would go at least 7-2, get off to a good start right out of the gate and maybe even run away and hide with the division the way the Red Sox did a year ago. Clearly, I was a fool for thinking so.

I was foolish to think not having baseball for six months magically made these Yankees any different than the 2018 Yankees. They’re not. It’s the same exact team and without Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, CC Sabathia and Aaron Hicks right now, they’re worse than last year’s version.

I was against bringing Brett Gardner back, but the Yankees signed him to a one-year deal before free agency could even breathe. OK, so he would be back as the team’s fourth outfielder and a veteran clubhouse presence, relegated to a reserve role on a team with true championship aspirations in what is really their first season in this window of opportunity to win. When he would play, I certainly didn’t think he would bat leadoff whether Aaron Hicks is out or not. Gardner hit like a catcher last season, batting .236/.322/.368 and batting himself down to ninth in the lineup before batting himself out of the starting lineup compltely following the trade for Andrew McCutchen. Luke Voit bats fourth because of what he did last season. Miguel Andujar bats fifth because of what he did last season. Gary Sanchez bats sixth because of what he did last season (which is why he no longer bats third or fourth). Gardner bats first because … I have no idea. The Yankees are an analytics-driven team, which has set pitch limits and innings for pitchers, rules about set days off and who rests and when. They have sleep researchers determine when the team should arrive for road trips and what time players should wake up to work out. But when it comes to who should get the most at-bats on the team, they’re fine with a player who’s barely on the team getting them and they’re fine with having no reason to justify it either.

I thought Giancarlo Stanton would be more comfortable in his second season as a Yankee, and maybe, just maybe he might even change his approach at the plate after the way he looked against quality pitchers all of last season. I thought his second season in New York, having become more familiar with the pitchers in the league would be more enjoyable to watch than his first. But his at-bat with the bases loaded on Saturday, followed by his awful three-pitch at-bat on Sunday showed Stanton is the same old Stanton, a player who will put a game that’s out of reach farther out of reach and who will take your backend starters to the upper deck. We’ll continue to hear about his 120 mph singles breaking Statcast records in the first inning of games and we’ll continue to watch him chase every slider in a crucial moments as well.

I thought Aaron Boone would progress as a manager in his second season, especially following his October mistakes. But after seeing him inexplicably bring Stephen Tarpley into Sunday’s game immediately following his offense getting the deficit to one with six outs left to tie the game made me wonder. Sure enough, Tarpley gave up a two-run home run to push the deficit to three. Then when Boone decided to get Chad Green up in the ninth inning in what was now a three-run deficit with the bases loaded thanks to Tommy Kahnle confirming he’s nowhere near being his old self, I no longer had to wonder. Boone proved he’s just as lost in his second season as he was in his rookie season.

Call these opinions overreactions or cite these the first three games of the season as three games out of 162 and the smallest of sample sizes. But they’re not. They’re exactly what we watched from the Yankees last season. You can reference the 1-4 start in the historical 1998 season or the 1-2 start against the Orioles to open the team’s last championship season in 2009 as reasons to not get overly upset with this past weekend. But these Yankees are definitely not the ’98 team and they’re far from being the ’09 club as well. For now, the 2019 Yankees are a continuation of the 2018 Yankees.

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

The feeling of Yankees baseball being back is truly indescribable. Knowing for at least the next six months (and it better be seven months) there will be baseball brings such an immense feeling of happiness, I’m not sure it can be matched by anything. (If my fiancée is reading this then that last sentence was simply a joke and an exaggeration.)

As far as Opening Day goes, you can’t have a better one than the Yankees had. Last year’s Opening Day win in Toronto was the gold standard for Opening Day wins and Thursday’s at least matched it.

The good Masahiro Tanaka showed up, something which hasn’t always happened in his Opening Day starts, in place of Luis Severino, the Yankees’ offense was overpowering, even without their starting center fielder and best leadoff option not named Aaron Judge and the bullpen pieced together 3 1/3 scoreless innings without Dellin Betances. The win was a product of the formula the Yankees have tried to win a championship with the last couple seasons: home runs get the lead, starting pitcher goes at least five and the bullpen closes it out.

The formula has come up short in back-to-back postseasons for the Yankees, but the way everyone talked about signs pointing to it being the Red Sox’ year early last season when they got off to a 17-2 start and won games every which way, there were a few small signs in Thursday’s 7-2 win over the Orioles pointing to this possibly being the Yankees’ season. When things like Judge and Giancarlo hitting back-to-back singles and Gary Sanchez is squibbing ground balls through the shift happen, you can’t help but think, This is the Yankees’ year.

Big picture, it was one win over the lousy Orioles, a team the Yankees shouldn’t lose to once out of their 19 games this season and a team who would probably sign up for their 47 wins from last season right now. (I have no idea how their roster is going to come up with one win let alone 47 and we might be looking at the worst team in the history of Major League Baseball.) But when you have been baseball-deprived for nearly six months and your season ends the way the Yankees’ did last year, Opening Day always feels more important and significant than it should.

We already knew the Yankees were on the short list of potential American League champions with the Red Sox and Astros, and Thursday did nothing other than prove they should be able to beat up on the many tanking teams in this year’s AL. With two more games against Baltimore this weekend, followed by three against Detroit and another three with Baltimore next weekend, there’s no reason the Yankees can’t go at least 7-2 in those nine games. They have to go to at least 7-2 in those games. The difference between winning the division and playing in the wild-card game last year came down to the Yankees’ inability to rack up wins against the crap throughout the league (and the four game sweep in Boston didn’t help).

There will be plenty of time to worry about the Yankees’ postseason plans and how they will navigate through the Red Sox and Astros in October. For now, the Yankees’ first goal is to win the division, something they haven’t done in seven years. Thursday’s win got them started in the right direction.

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