There’s no guest once again because there’s another Yankees injury. Aaron Judge is hurt an the Yankees don’t know why.
The Yankees are getting close to not having their entire expected outfield for Opening Day. Aaron Judge’s shoulder is still bothering him when he hits and the Yankees don’t why.
For the third straight podcast, there’s no guest. It’s once again a Yankees injury update and it’s once again not good. Judge is undergoing more testing for his shoulder and if he can’t start playing in spring training games by the end of next week, he won’t be ready for Opening Day, and the Yankees’ entire outfield will be on the injured list.
There’s a very real chance the Yankees begin the season without their entire expected outfield. Aaron Judge’s shoulder isn’t better and the Yankees don’t even know what’s wrong with it.
Laugh. That’s all you can do at this point when it comes to the Yankees and their injuries. Laugh. Two weeks after Aaron Boone said Judge was “just dealing with some crankiness” and would be shut down from throwing or batting, I knew this wouldn’t end well. Boone’s nonchalant explanation of injuries coupled with Judge’s injury history and the Yankees’ frequently wrong handling of injuries meant this was going to get worse before it got better. And it has gotten worse.
On Saturday, three days after it was announcing Giancarlo Stanton has a Grade 1 calf strain and will most likely miss the start of the season, Boone told YES that Judge is going through “testing” to find out why his shoulder is still bothering him.
When Judge’s shoulder issue was originally announced by Boone two weeks ago, I wrote If You’re Not Worried About Aaron Judge Being Injured, You Should Be and was told I was overreacting. Sorry if I have been traumaitzed by the 2019 Yankees and their medical staff, but a four-month layoff between the end of the ALCS and the beginngi of spring strainign didn’t magically create trust between the team’s handling of injuries and me. After Boone said Judge would be shut down from throwing and batting for at least the next week, it was only two days later that he was seen throwing and before his shut down period ended, he was once again swinging a bat, which seemed odd given the Yankees’ stated rehab plan for him. The shoulder “crankiness” that Boone described still hasn’t gone away for Judge, and not only has he not played in a spring training game, but the Yankees aren’t even sure what the problem is.
“It’s frustrating that we haven’t pinpointed exactly what it is, what’s caused the discomfort, so that’s the frustrating part,” Boone said. “But I would say I feel a little more optimistic as to where we’re at.”
Of course Boone says he’s optimistic. What do you expect him to say? That he’s freaking out like the fan base because a team in the middle of a championship window that’s supposed to reach the World Series is going into the season without 40 percent of its expected rotation and now possibly without its entire expected outfield. Boone is definitely thinking that, he’s just not going to say it.
“We’re in a holding pattern with it, just trying to figure out what exactly is going on,” Boone said. “We’re trying to get our arms around if we can pinpoint something that’s causing some of the discomfort. At this point we haven’t found that.”
Leave it to the Yankees to still not know what’s wrong with the team’s best player two weeks after finding out about his ailing shoudler, thinking the “crankiness” would magically disappear with a few days of rest. An MRI was unable to reveal anything, so now Judge will have another test on Monday to try to discover what the issue is.
I don’t know how anyone could be optimistic about this injury or any Yankees injury. In two weeks, Judge hasn’t gotten any better. He’s still able to throw, but unable to hit without discomfort. Boone said Judge would be ready for Opening Day if he’s able to get into games over the final 10 days of spring training, though that would mean Judge has to start playing by the end of next week, and considering he’s not only not currently ready to play in games, but that his shoulder discomfort is still a mystery, playing in games by the end of next week feels a little unrealistic.
What is becoming realistic though is an Opening Day outfield consisting of three of Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman, Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar. There’s now 24 days until spring training and the Yankees are very close to beginning an expected championship season without their entire starting outfield.
In the most and least surprising news ever, Giancarlo Stanton is once again injured. The Yankees will be down two-thirds of their expected outfield to start the season.
I thought the 2019 season ended. I thought the nonstop, devastating injuries which ruined last season would end when the season ended. I thought an offseason of rest and recuperation would lead to a healthier Yankees season in 2020 and ultimately the team’s first championship in 11 years. I was wrong for thinking these things. A day after the Yankees announced Luis Severino needs Tommy Johny surgery and will miss the entire 2020 season and at least part of the 2021 season, the Yankees announced Giancarlo Stanton has a Grade 1 calf strain and will most likely not be ready for Opening Day.
The Stanton injury announcement was the the most and least surprisng news ever. After playing in just 18 regular-season games a year ago when a biceps strain turned into a shoulder strain and that turned into a calf strain (here is a detailed history of those injuries), Stanton returned for the postseason only to end up injured and on the bench again in the ALCS. I decided I would give Stanton a fresh start in 2020. No sarcasm to start the season, no snarky comments, no “Ladies and gentlemen” beginning on Opening Day. I would be positive when it comes to Stanton for as long as he let me be positive. He let me positive until Feb. 26.
I went to the first two games of the 2018 season in Toronto and when Stanton hit a home run in his first Yankees at-bat I couldn’t have been more excited for what was to come in the current Yankees era. When he hit his second home run of the game, I turned to my now wife Brittni and laughed out loud, while thinking of the endless possibilites for the Yankees’ lineup. Yet here we are, nearly two years since that game in Toronto and calling Stanton’s time a disapointment as a Yankee would be an insult to disappointments. While Stanton’s first regular season with the Yankees was OK, he followed it up with an atrocious postseason that ended with him flailing at a Craig Kimbrel slider which bounced several feet away from the plate. And then there was last season. Collectively, Stanton’s Yankees tenure has been a disaster.
I have no idea when Stanton will play a game for the 2020 Yankees, and the Yankees don’t know either. Given the way his biceps strain morphed into other injuries in different parts of his body, there’s no way of knowing what this current calf strain might become. If there were a prop bet on him being ready for Opening Day I would be borrowing money from any and every source in order to maximize my earnings. The way he found new and unusual ways to get injured while already injured on the injured list last season must have made Jacoby Ellsbury proud as Stanton is now the team’s new version of Ellsbury. The Yankees always seem to have an oft-injured player or pitcher signed to a long-term deal who can’t stay healthy, and that person is now Stanton.
For a player who finished his 20s playing in just 11 percent of the team’s games, I highly doubt Stanton is magically going to get healthier with age. He’s now 30 and he’s going to be a Yankee this season and next season … and the season after … and the season after … and the season after … and the season after … and the season after … and the season after … and then season after that in 2028, the Yankees can buy him out and pay him $10 million to not play baseball for them anymore. By then he will be 37 years old and I don’t even want to think about how many games he will have played or not played in the seasons leading up to the end of his career.
The Yankees were able to win 103 regular-season games and get to within two wins of the World Series without him last season, so he’s almost become a luxury. But he’s only a luxury when the team is somewhat healthy, and right now they are nowhere near being somewhat healthy. They are without their starting left fielder in Stanton and starting center fielder in Aaron Hicks. Their No. 2 starter in Severino is out for this season and part of next season and their No. 3 starter in James Paxton will miss at least the first month of the season (and has yet to ever pitch a full season in the majors). On top of these injuries, Aaron Judge has yet to really swing a bat and hasn’t played in a spring training game. So while the Yankees are going to start the season without two-thirds of their expected starting outfield, they are dangerously close to starting it without any of their expected starting outfielders.
I want to like Stanton and I want to root for him. I want him to be the player I thought the Yankees were acquiring when they were handed him by the Marlins, but it’s becoming more and more unlikely he’s ever going to be close to that player again. For now, I will accept him just being healthy and doing his job, which is playing baseball. Let’s start with him being in the regular-season lineup and then I can start to think about him being the middle-of-the-order, MVP presence he’s supposed to be.
There’s no guest today. It’s just me for the second straight day talking about yet another Yankees injury.
Giancarlo Stanton had an up-and-down first season with the Yankees, which ended with him flailing at a Craig Kimbrel slider several feet off the plate and in the dirt. His second season was a disaster as he played in just 18 regular-season games and then ended up watching the Yankees lose to the Astros in the ALCS on the bench. Now he’s hurt again and most likely will miss at least the start of the season, though based on his previous injury rehabs, it could be much more.
For the second straight day, there’s no guest. Yesterday, it was just me being sad, frustrated, annoyed and mad about Luis Severino missing the 2020 season, and today it’s just me amazed that Stanton could possibly be hurt yet again.
The Yankees knew Luis Severino ended the season with a forearm injury, James Paxton with a back issue and Masahiro Tanaka needing bone spurs removed, and they still chose to not bolster their starting pitching.
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.
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:
Gerrit Cole
Luis Severino
James Paxton
Masahiro Tanaka
J.A. Happ
This is now the 2020 Yankees’ expected Opening Day rotation:
Gerrit Cole
Masahiro Tanaka
J.A. Happ
Jordan Montgomery
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.
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.
