It’s Wednesday and that means it’s Spring Cleaning time. Unfortunately, all of the thoughts this week are in regards to Luis Severino’s season-ending injury, the poor handling of his injury and the poor planning which now has the Yankees scrambling to build a rotation.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees as usual.

1. A day later and the Luis Severino news still sucks. (I wrote about my reaction and feeling to the news yesterday.) It’s going to suck all season. There’s no finding another Severino during the season unless Deivi Garcia somehow does in 2020 what Severino did in 2015. Other than Garcia going from a 20-year-old who struggled in his brief time at Triple-A to front-end major league starer, there aren’t any options. The free-agent options are the equivalent to the movie options in a DVD bin at a convenient store, and unless the Yankees think they can win the Powerball and Mega Millions on the same day by completely reclamating someone like Matt Harvey or Andrew Cashner, there’s no one worthy of signing. The trade deadline options might be OK if the right teams fall apart before the end of July, but that’s five months away.

2. This was the 2020 Yankees’ expected Opening Day rotation:

1. Gerrit Cole
2. Luis Severino
3. James Paxton
4. Masahiro Tanaka
5. J.A. Happ

This is now the 2020 Yankees’ expected Opening Day rotation:

1. Gerrit Cole
2. Masahiro Tanaka
3. J.A. Happ
4. Jordan Montgomery
5. Opener or journeyman or rookie with no MLB starting experience

3. The Yankees handled Severino’s injury as poorly as possible, but they also handled planning for starting pitching depth as poorly as possible. All winter the Yankees had the opportunity to sign major-league arms and all winter they knew Severino ended the season with forearm discomfort. They also knew James Paxton battled a back injury in the postseason, Masahiro Tanaka needed to have bone spurs removed from his right arm and J.A. Happ was coming off the worst season of his career. Despite Gerrit Cole being the only healthy and productive member of their upcoming staff, the Yankees chose not to add to their starting pitching depth. Unless you count signing Nick Tropeano and Chad Bettis as adding to their starting pitching depth. Last season, Tropeano pitched 13 2/3 innings in the majors and allowed 18 hits, 15 earned runs, six walks and six home runs, while Bettis had a 6.08 ERA in 63 2/3 innings and has a 5.08 ERA over the last four years and 416 1/3 innings.

4. The Yankees are most likely going to open the season with one of those two as their fifth starter. Garcia or Mike King or Clarke Schmidt might be the answer at some point, but I doubt the Yankees will use any of the three as the No. 5 starter to begin the season. King could use more time at Triple-A, Garcia is 20 and was knocked around in 40 innings at Triple-A and Schmidt has 19 innings at Double-A on his resume. Get ready for Bettis against Rays at the Trop in the fifth game of the season.

5. The other option is to use an opener, pairing Chad Green with say Luis Cessa. Using Green as the opener hurts the bullpen and the ability to use him in high-leverage situations later in the game, but it does prevent Bettis or Tropeano from getting the ball. If a rotation spot isn’t going to go to King, Garcia or Schmidt, which I don’t think it will, then my pick is to use an opener as the fifth starter. However, I think the Yankees will see if they can get mediocre results out of Bettis or Tropeano before moving to an opener and weakening their bullpen strength.

6. The rotation is a mess, and there’s a better chance it gets messier than there is that it gets better. There’s more than four weeks until Opening Day. That’s a lot of time and a lot of spring training games for more injuries to ruin this pitching staff and this team. There’s no spinning the news of losing Severino into a positive. If you’re optimistic because Paxton is expected back after the first month of the season, I just want to remind you that he’s never pitched a full season in the majors in his career, and based off his injury history, it’s more likely this current injured list appearance isn’t going to be his only one of the season. That’s not pessimistic, that’s based on his six-year career in the majors and his career-high for regular-season innings being 160 1/3.

7. Severino first complained of this same forearm issue after his ALCS Game 3 start on Oct. 15. The Yankees’ medical staff examined him after that start and cleared him to pitch in a potential Game 7 in the ALCS, which never happened. During the offseason, the issue subsided because Severino WASN’T PITCHING. As soon as spring training began and he started pitching again, the forearm issue returned. So rather than realizing Severino needed surgery back in October, the Yankees realized it four months later. So instead of being ready in time for the 2021 season, Severino will now miss part of the 2021 season. The botched handling of the injury in October was one final parting gift from the medical staff which oversaw the most injured team in history.

8. It’s not like this is the first time the team botched an injury with Severino either. In spring training a year ago, he hurt his shoulder. While rehabbing the shoulder injury, he suffered a lat injury, which the team later claimed it was unaware of. When Severino suffered a setback, the team admitted they should have had him undergo an MRI prior to throwing again to make sure he was actually healed. The injuries were going to keep him out for a large part of last season, but the handling of the injuries is what kept him out for all but three starts of it. Now it’s the handling that will keep him out for at least part of 2021 as well.

9. Severino’s absence means a spot on the Opening Day 26-man roster is open. It’s been two weeks since I predicted the Opening Day roster, so here’s the latest prediction.

1. Gary Sanchez
2. Luke Voit
3. DJ LeMahieu
4. Gio Urshela
5. Gleyber Torres
6. Giancarlo Stanton
7. Brett Gardner
8. Aaron Judge
9. Miguel Andujar
10. Mike Tauchman
11. Tyler Wade
12. Mike Ford
13. Kyle Higashioka
14. Gerrit Cole
15. Masahiro Tanaka
16. J.A. Happ
17. Jordan Montgomery
18. Chad Bettis
19. Aroldis Chapman
20. Zack Britton
21. Adam Ottavino
22. Chad Green
23. Tommy Kahnle
24. Jonathan Loaisiga
25. Luis Cessa
26. Jonathan Holder

10. The good news … well, there isn’t any good news regarding Severino missing the entire season. The bright side … OK, there isn’t a bright side either. Let’s go with at least … at least the league is top-heavy once again. The only thing keeping me from creating spring, summer and falls plans that have nothing to do with baseball is that the Yankees should still easily win the division and reach the postseason because of how non-competitive most of the teams in baseball will once again be. I’m not worried about the Yankees getting to the postseason, I’m worried about what they will do once they get there. The championship window is open right now and it won’t stay open forever. This will be the fourth season with Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez as full-time players. DJ LeMahieu, Tanaka and Paxton are impending free agents. Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks will undoubtedly age poorly, and the division isn’t going to be a cakewalk forever. This season was going to be the Yankees’ best chance in the last four to win the World Series, and now the chance of them winning is much less. The Yankees can still win the World Series, but it’s going to be a lot harder without Severino.

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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!

We’re a week into spring training and that means we’re a week closer to Opening Day. Six weeks from Thursday is Opening Day in Baltimore when Gerrit Cole will pitch a complete-game, two-hit shutout of the Orioles in his Yankees debut. (No big-name Yankees pitcher seems to do well in their debut, so it will probaly be a grind.) The Yankees are already down a starting pitcher and now their best player has been shut down from hitting for a week. The injuries need to stop and the investigation about the Red Sox’ cheating needs to be released.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees as usual.

1. Yes, I’m worried about Aaron Judge’s shoulder. How can I not be? I don’t care that there’s video of Judge running around at spring training on Wednesday and fielding balls in the outfield. He’s been shut down from hitting and really throwing, and whenever your best player is shut down from hitting, even if it’s 37 days before Opening Day, it’s not good. Not good at all.

Judge has been in the majors for three-plus seasons and has suffered injuries in all of those seasons. He was shut down for the final two weeks of the 2016 season with an oblique injury. In 2017, he battled a second-half shoulder injury which cost him the AL MVP (along with Jose Altuve and his teammates knowing which pitches were coming). He missed one third of the season in 2018 after getting drilled by a pitch on his wrist, which certainly was a freak injury, and then he missed two months last season after suffering another oblique injury. Overall, Judge has missed 25 percent of his three full seasons in the league.

Aaron Boone led us to believe the injury is “minor” but how many times did Boone do the same last season only to have the Yankees set the single-season record for most players on the injured list?

2. It’s not so much that Judge has to be shut down in the Yankees’ conservative effort to make sure whatever this is doesn’t turn into somehing more the way every injury seemed to last season that has me worrying so much. It’s more the way Boone has explained and reacted to Judge’s inury that has me worried of Mike Tauchman or Clint Frazier now being an everyday player to begin the 2020 season with Brett Gardner already once again thrust into a season-opening everyday role because of Aaron Hicks’ latest injury.

Boone was very nonchalant in speaking about Judge’s shoulder and I can’t help but have flashbacks to spring training of last year when he talked about Luis Severino’s shoulder or Dellin Betances’ shoulder or Aaron Hicks’ back or during the regular season when he talked about Miguel Andujar’s shoulder or Giancarlo Stanton’s bicep, shoulder and calf. Most likely this is nothing and Judge will be fine in a week, but it’s going to take a long time for me to trust the Yankees when it comes to injuries. A long time.

3. Seeing Dellin Betances in a Mets uniform is disgusting. Seeing him on an actual field with the whole uniform on is much different than it was seeing him put on a jersey at his introductory press conference. There was no reason for the Yankees to not sign Betances. Believing they don’t need him because they have Aroldis Chapman, whose declining velocity and control and inability to put away hitters is frightening, Zack Britton, whose control is a real problem and isn’t who he once was, Adam Ottavino, who helped ruin the ALCS, Tommy Kahnle, who is a year removed from spending the season in the minors, or Chad Green, who was demoted last season for the worst stretch of relief appearances possibly ever, is more than risky. I will never get over Betances not being a Yankee.

4. Seeing Didi Gregorius in a Phillies uniform barely fazed me. Gregorius was already a Red and Diamondback before becoming a Yankee, so him wearing other colors isn’t anything unusual. Betances was only ever a Yankee, a New York native and homegrown Yankee and the best reliever in baseball for five straight years, and now he wears blue and orange. Gregorius was a nice player, but it was time to move on from him and it doesn’t make me sad to see him with another team.

5. Seeing Joe Girardi in a Phillies uniform was a little weird. It wasn’t as weird as Betances or not weird at all like Gregorius, but it was weird. Girardi was a Cub, Rockie and Cardinal aside from being a Yankee as a player and managed the Marlins before the Yankees, so he’s been in other uniforms. It’s not like he’s Don Mattingly wearing a Dodgers or Marlins uniform. For all of the critcism I directed at Girardi in his 10 years as Yankees manager, and I feel like he got screwed over at the end of his tenure. Boone has been OK, but I wish there was a way to see or know how 2018 and 2019 would have played out with Girardi.

6. Add Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton to the ever-growing list of players speaking out against the Astros. Each day it seems like some new big-name player has an opinion on the Astros and the story seems to be gaining traction the more removed we are from the initial release of the investigation. That’s not usually how it works. The commissioner’s embarrassing press conference in Florida was only made worse by his press conference in Arizona, and I have no idea when this story will begin to fade.

The Astros have dealt with their own contingent of beat reporters and national reporters, but they have yet to travel and be asked questions by other team’s media, and they have yet to travel to opposing stadiums. I think MLB believes eventually when real games begin and there are actual games to watch and talk about that the story will slow down, though everything that has happened over the last month suggests differently. I think the regular season is going to be worse for this story than spring training has been despite there being actual games to watch and talk about it.

7. There’s no protecting the Astros players once games start and the commissioner knows it. He protected them in terms of suspensions and fines by granting them immunity in the sign-stealing investigation, but he can’t protect them once they step into the batter’s box. Pitchers who want to throw at the Astros are going to throw at them. The commissioner can’t give out a warning to anyone who throws at the Astros since that would take away the inside for pitchers and that would be advantageous to the Astros, and they have been playing with enough of an advantage over the last few years. I think we will see beanball issues as early as Opening Day. I know teams want to win and get off to a good start, but the backlash from all of baseball (aside from loser J.D. Martinez) makes me believe the Angels are going to answer the bell on the first day of the season.

8. I don’t like Martinez because of the team he plays for, but now I don’t like him because of the team he plays for and because of his Astros-related comments earlier this week.

“I understand players’ frustrations and stuff like that, but I think, in my opinion, it’s already getting a little bit too much,” Martinez said. “We have to move past it at some point. We can’t continue to talk about it.”

In a time when nearly every star player in the sport, including the sport’s biggest name in Mike Trout, has spoken out against the Astros, Martinez has become the first non-Astros player to speak out against the backlash against the Astros. Martinez is the first Red Sox player to openly speak about the subject since the investigation into the Red Sox’ own cheating has yet to be released, and as the first Red Sox to talk about the Astros, he chose to side with the Astros.

9. I’m excited for the Red Sox’ investigation to be released the same way I get excited for the release of a TV show, movie, album or the MLB schedule. The Astros have to be wondering where the Red Sox’ report is since it will take some momentary heat off of them, but it’s only going to keep cheating at the forefront of baseball. Normally, I would be sick and tired of a story which didn’t happen on the field getting this much attention, however, when it involves a team that eliminated the Yankees in two of the last three postseasons and is about to invole the team that eliminated in the other of the last three postseasons, I can’t get enough of it.

10. The Yankees didn’t play a single game in 2019 with their entire expected lineup. As of now, they’re going to begin 2020 without their starting center fielder, so there’s a chance they don’t play a game in 2020 with their entire lineup for a single game either. Is it too much to ask for the Yankees to not lose any other players or pitches between now and Opening Day? James Paxton is already going to miss at least the first month of the season and Judge is working through a shoulder issue. Let’s not have 2019 be a repeat of 2020 both in terms of injuries and the end result of the season.

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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!

Spring is here! Sure, the high in New York City is 45 today and it’s been gray outside for days and the temperature on Friday is expected to get close to single digits, but spring is officially here. Not spring in the sense of 60-degree days, outdoor happy hours and walking your dog without the fear of frostbite, but spring in the sense that baseball is back.

Pitchers and catchers report today in Tampa and that means the start of the season. There will be a meaningless baseball game to watch next week and a meaningful game to watch in six weeks. Welcome back, baseball!

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees as usual.

1. It felt like minutes after I published last week’s Spring Cleaning the James Paxton injury announcement was made. It wouldn’t be a Yankees season without an injury to start the season and really before the season even started since today is the first day of the season. While it isn’t ideal that Paxton underwent a back procedure and will miss at least the first month of the season, I’m not upset about it. Paxton gets injured, that’s what he does. He has never pitched a full season in the majors with his career-high innings coming two years ago at 160 1/3. Paxton’s injury history is the No. 1 reason why I was skeptical about the trade for him and he proved me right when he missed a month of last season with a knee injury then pitched through that knee injury all summer before hurting his back in his final start of the season in Texas. I already planned on Paxton missing time this season, it just happens to come at the beginning of the season. But as long as he returns healthy and effective then this early-season obstacle won’t matter.

2. The Paxton injury means J.A. Happ is now the No. 4 starter. That is problematic. Happ had the worst year of his career last season and is now a year older with another year of innings on his arm. If the ball is the pre-2019 regular-season ball and more like the 2019 postseason ball, Happ has a chance to rebound and be the pitcher the Yankees traded for in 2018 and signed as a free agent before last season. I don’t think we’re going to see the guy from 2018 that went 7-0 in 11 post-trade deadline starts for the Yankees, pitching to a 2.69 ERA and 1.052 WHIP, but he doesn’t need to be that guy anymore. He just needs to not be a four-inning, bullpen crusher like he was last year. But if the super ball is used again in 2020, well, bet the over anytime Happ starts and at least make some money off of his career decline.

3. Unfortunately, Gerrit Cole is going to have to answer a lot of questions about his time with the Astros. Even though he wasn’t part of the 2017 championship team, he was part of the 2018 and 2019 teams, and even though he’s a pitcher, he’s still going to be asked if he knew about what was going on. Cole knows this is coming and the Yankees know this is coming and they have had a month to prepare for it. I could care less what Cole knew or didn’t know and don’t expect him to give any real insight into what went on in Houston. I only care about what he does for the next nine years. Whatever happened in Houston is over with and isn’t going to bring back the Yankees’ chances at winning a championship for the first time since 2009.

4. I saw a picture of Mike Ford showing up at spring training on Tuesday and without the caption I wouldn’t have known it was Ford. It just looked like some big (and I mean big), sloppy guy standing in front of the Yankees’ Tampa complex for a picture to post on social media. Nope. It was the Yankees’ only left-handed power bat on his way to work. I love Ford. He’s the easiest of guys to root for, made even easier by his .259/.350/.559 line last season and his 12 home runs in 143 at-bats. He should have been in the postseason lineup when it was evident Edwin Encarnacion was either injured or rusty and an automatic and Giancarlo Stanton was taking himself out of the lineup due to injury. Instead, the Yankees left a left-handed.909 OPS off the postseason roster in favor of a laughable amount of strikeouts. But this is the same team that thought it was a better idea to have Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury share DH responsibilities in the 2017 postseason rather than carry Clint Frazier on the postseason roster. Right now, the only left-handed bat in the Yankees’ lineup is Brett Gardner, and no one benefited more from the super ball than Gardner in 2019, resurrecting his career and getting another year from the Yankees for it. Aaron Hicks won’t return until the middle of the season at best, and knowing Hicks’ injury-recovery history, if you think you’re seeing him back when expected, you probably though he would be back in time for the second series of last season as reported. I think Ford is going to be part of the Opening Day roster even if he’s limited as only a first baseman/designated hitter.

5. It’s either Ford is on the Opening Day roster or both Frazier and Mike Tauchman are on the roster. With Tyler Wade presumably being on the team on March 26, I can’t see the Yankees carrying both Frazier and Tauchman since Wade can play the outfield. Here’s my first prediction at the Opening Day roster:

1. Gary Sanchez
2. Luke Voit
3. DJ LeMahieu
4. Gio Urshela
5. Gleyber Torres
6. Giancarlo Stanton
7. Brett Gardner
8. Aaron Judge
9. Miguel Andujar
10. Mike Tauchman
11. Tyler Wade
12. Mike Ford
13. Kyle Higashioka
14. Gerrit Cole
15. Luis Severino
16. Masahiro Tanaka
17. J.A. Happ
18. Jordan Montgomery
19. Aroldis Chapman
20. Zack Britton
21. Adam Ottavino
22. Chad Green
23. Tommy Kahnle
24. Jonathan Loaisiga
25. Luis Cessa
26. Jonathan Holder

(Unfortunately, the Goof Troop duo of Cessa and Holder are back for another season.)

6. Now that Austin Romine is no longer a Yankee, the Rominers (his fan club) will have to hitch their wagon to Higashioka in their quest to have Sanchez replaced and removed from the Yankees. I have been a Higashioka fan and he is deserving of finally getting a chance to be the team’s full-season backup catcher. But I can already see the stories calling for him to be the starting catcher with the first Sanchez passed ball or slump. The Rominers will now be the Higashiokians.

7. We’re going to hear a lot about Andujar and how he looks at first base and in left field, especially over the next week. There has already been video of him taking grounders at third and position players haven’t even had to report yet. Andujar is one of three Yankees players who generate negative responses whenever they are mentioned with the other two being Stanton and Sanchez. The dislike for a player who hit .297 with an .855 OPS and 27 home runs as a rookie because of his fielding is one of those things that will never make sense. After listening to other third baseman talk about how they had to grow defensively from where they were early in their careers, it seems like Andujar could as well. Unfortunately, most Yankees fans have already given up on him as a third baseman as if he’s a six-year veteran who has been unable to improve. I’m rooting for Andujar to win back his position.

8. With pitchers and catchers reporting all across baseball on Wednesday, it’s the Astros’ chance to actually seem apologetic for their sign-stealing schemes which resulted in their manager getting fired despite the commissioner calling it a “player-driven” operation. I highly doubt any Astros pitcher or player is ever going to really say anything even remotely interesting about the whole thing. I’m sure their communications team has been working nonstop for a month to make sure each player in camp knows exactly what to say and how much to say. Astros like Justin Verlander, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa and George Springer and now hated everywhere outside of Houston and that’s not going to change no matter what they say. The hate will only grow if they continue to give nonsensical answers like Altuve and Bregman did last month. The Astros will hear about it from the fans and be asked the questions about it in all 81 road games and any success they have will be questioned like their last few seasons are. The Astros don’t play in Yankee Stadium until a four-game series from Sept. 21-24. So just when the season is winding down and they after six-plus months of hearing about it and answering about it, they will have to hear about it and answer for it more than they have all season in Games 156, 157, 158 and 159. That’s too bad.

9. Mookie Betts and David Price are officially no longer Red Sox. I was getting nervous for a few days there that the Red Sox had backed out of the deal after getting crushed by the media and their fans since the initial trade was announced. But rather than back out of a deal to trade possibly the second-best player in the sport and a No. 2 or 3 starter, the Red Sox went through with it, acting like a small-market team and waving the white flag on 2020. The Red Sox front office can say all they want that they expect to be competitive in 2020 as if there’s anyone dumb enough in New England to believe them, but they’re not going to be competitive. They will once again win in the mid-80s and will likely finish somewhere around 20 games out in the division. The Red Sox will still be paying a portion of Price’s contract and they owe Nathan Eovaldi three more years and $51 million and Chris Sale five more years and $145 million. So long, Red Sox. See you in a few years.

10. I wrote about the idiotic playoff format which was leaked on Monday, and I’m still not over it. I’m even more angry about it the more I think about it. Even if this format never comes to fruition, and I don’t see how it could with the negative feedback and backlash it has endured since coming out, just the idea that the league sat around and worked on it enough that is was worthy enough of being leaked is disturbing. If you’re the Mariners, you probably love the idea of seven playoff teams since it might be the only way for them to erase their postseason drought. If you’re an owner who pockets the team’s revenue sharing money and doesn’t invest back into his team, you probably love the idea since you can continue to not spend and hope to be .500 and sneak into the playoffs and make even more money. A team like the 2020 Red Sox would be a perfect candidate for either that third or fourth wild card. What better way to reward the Red Sox for trading their best player and being able to get some finacial help on the remaining money from a $217 million than to give them an undeserved postseason berth!

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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!