The Yankees are in first place in the AL East. They got there because of the performance of their elite relievers, MVP-like seasons from Gary Sanchez and DJ LeMahieu and timely hitting from the long list of Replacement Yankees which have appeared in games. The starting pitching has played a very limited role in the team’s success.

The Yankees have played 58 games or 36 percent of their season. In those 58 games, they have received only 20 “quality starts” (at least six innings pitched and three earned runs or less) and their starting pitcher has pitched at least six innings only 22 times. That’s a problem. A huge problem.

The Yankees’ formula for winning is to get five innings from their starter and let the best bullpen in baseball get the final 12 outs of the game. This formula prevents the opposition from seeing the Yankees’ starter for a third time and welcomes them with fastballs around triple digits from every reliever along with the ridiculous slider of Aroldis Chapman, the unhittable curveball of Dellin Betances, the never-ending arsenal of sliders from Adam Ottavino, the impossible-to-get-under sinker of Zack Britton and the disappearing changeup of Tommy Kahnle. But this is really the Yankees’ formula for winning in the postseason. It can’t be used day in and day out in the regular season or it won’t work when it’s needed most.

The Yankees’ starting pitching length problem doesn’t just mean more appearances from the untrustworthy arms of Chad Green, Jonathan Holder, Luis Cessa, Nestor Cortes, David Hale and whichever future average arms the Yankees call up throughout the season. It means more appearances from Kahnle, Britton, Ottavino, eventually Betances and Chapman. It means the formula will be less effective in the postseason.

Even if the Yankees were getting substantial length from their starters, they would still need Keuchel between the lingering injuries, injury histories and workloads of their rotation.

Masahiro Tanaka’s career starts per season: 20, 24, 31, 30 and 27. Thankfully, the 2014 elbow tear, which led to every member of the New York media suddenly holding a medical degree and private orthopedic surgery practice telling Tanaka to get surgery, hasn’t really emerged since. But even without the presence of the elbow tear, which has felt like a dark cloud following the Yankees for almost five years, Tanaka always eventually needs an extra day of rest or ends up on the injured list for some a non-elbow related injury.

James Paxton has never made more than 28 starts and has never thrown more than 160 1/3 innings in a season. Those two career highs both came last year. So not only does Paxton have a long history of various injuries and significant disabled list and injured list time, he’s coming off the largest workload of his career. He’s already been on the injured list once in two months as a Yankee for a knee injury, an injury he claims is still present and one he plans on pitching through.

Domingo German, a former Tommy John recipient who missed all of 2015, has thrown 64 innings this season. Since his surgery, he threw 49 2/3 innings in the minors in 2016, 123 2/3 innings between the majors and minors in 2017 and 94 innings last season between the majors and minors. The Yankees believe they have innings limits and pitching injury prevention down to a science, which is comical given the long list of injuries this season, and there is a secret number of innings they are going to allow German to throw this season. He’s already 30 innings away from his total across all levels last season and maybe his last two starts were just bad outings or maybe they were an indication he’s hitting a wall due to his early-season total. Either way, German isn’t going to be a full-season member of the rotation whether he’s healthy or not.

J.A. Happ is healthy, he’s just been inconsistent and easily the worst member of the rotation. He’s actually been good against every team that’s not the last-place, historically-bad Orioles, who he’s somehow allowed 15 earned runs against in 17 2/3 innings over four starts. But even in his non-Orioles starts, Happ has only reached six innings pitched in half of them. The 36-year-old has pitched like a 36-year-old this season, and while health has never been a concern with him, performance now is.

CC Sabathia managed to achiee a quality start against the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball and every Yankees fans would sign up for six innings and three earned runs in every Sabathia start. The problem is getting six innings from him isn’t realistic. He’s reached six innings in two of nine starts this season and did so in only 11 of 29 starts last season. Aside from the five-and-fly outings from Sabathia, his ongoing knee issue isn’t magically going away in his final season, and it’s already forced him to the injured list once this season and will again at least once within the next four months since his trips to the injured list are now planned.

Supposedly, Luis Severino has been pain free for a few weeks and is set to begin a throwing program. He will essentially need to be built back up as if it were the start of spring training leading up to the start of the season. Couple that with the fact Severino is the face and both immediate and long-term future of the rotation, who recently signed a four-year, $40 million extension, and the Yankees are going to take is extra slow with him. Severino jumped from 151 1/3 total innings in 2016 to 209 1/3 innings in 2017 and then another 198 1/3 innings in 2018. It’s not exactly a surprise he had a shoulder and subsequent lat injury in spring training. But if Severino started his throwing program today, you’re looking at a return sometime near the end of July. We’re at the point where one more setback will likely mean he won’t pitch for the Yankees this season. While it’s fun to think about how good the first-place Yankees will be when they get their ace back, we’re a long way from seeing him pitching for the Yankees this season.

With Jonathan Loaisiga injured, the Yankees’ plan for starts outside of these pitchers is to use an “opener” or a “bullpen game” to get by. That means some combination of Green, Cessa, Cortes and Hale. That’s no way to put yourself in the best position to win the division for the first time in seven years.

No, the Yankees won’t be getting the 2015 AL Cy Young version of Dallas Keuchel (20-8, 2.48 ERA) or the 2017 All-Star version (14-5, 2.90 ERA) if they sign the free-agent left-hander. All they need is the 2018 version (12-11, 3.74 ERA), and they might not even need that. They just need a reliable, experienced arm to take the ball every five days, which is something their depth lacks right now.

The Yankees didn’t want to spend the money to sign Patrick Corbin? Fine. (Well, not fine actually.) They didn’t want to spend the money to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado? Fine. They didn’t want to give out a long-term deal or lose their first-round draft pick to sign Keuchel? Fine. Well, now they don’t have to give Keuchel a long-term deal or lose their first-round draft pick to sign him.

All Keuchel will cost the Yankees is money. Just money. It’s something the Yankees make more of than any team in the league and something they used to use to their advantage. This is the first true season in the current window of opportunity to win a championship with these Yankees and they have a glaring weakness which can be resolved with cash right now. Within the next two months from now, they will no longer be able to fix it with only money and will have to further dismantle their farm system to solidify their starting pitching.

The 2017 Yankees refrained from trading for Justin Verlander because they were scared off by the money owed to him. So he went to the Astros and was the difference in the ALCS, beating the Yankees in Games 1 and 6 en route to winning the World Series.

The 2018 Yankees, coming off a season in which they came within one win of the World Series, decided to cut payroll by $50 million and wouldn’t pull the trigger on an offseason trade for Gerrit Cole. The Astros traded for Cole and wound up in the ALCS. The Red Sox and Dodgers went out and spent more money than any other team and wound up in the World Series.

If the Yankees aren’t willing to spend money in this situation, I don’t know when they ever will be. The players have done their part, climbing to the top of the AL East despite all the injuries and now it’s up to the front office to reward them for their performance by signing Keuchel.

If the Yankees end up losing the division to the Rays and end up in the wild-card game for the fourth time in five seasons, drastically decreasing their chances to advance to the ALDS and eventually the World Series, because of starting pitching, they will forever regret the decision to not use their wallet to resolve this issue the way I’m sure they regret not doing so the last two seasons.

***

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

Last August, the Yankees trailed the Red Sox by 5 1/2 games when they went to Boston for a four-game series. It was the Yankees’ last chance to put a dent into the deficit and they needed to win at least three out of four and cut their games back to 3 1/2 before the final 52 games of the season. Anything less than three out of four and it would be back to the one-game playoff for the second year in a row and third time in four years.

The Yankees were without Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez for the series, and J.A. Happ, who they had just traded for mainly because of his career and season success against the Red Sox, wouldn’t pitch over the weekend after getting sick with a rare illness. Despite the lack of Judge and Sanchez in the lineup, the Yankees opened the Thursday night game with three runs in the first and another in the second for an early 4-0 lead. But CC Sabathia didn’t have it and Aaron Boone waited too long to realize he didn’t have it and wasn’t going to find it. In relief of Sabathia, Jonathan Holder pooped his pants on the mound at Fenway Park as he faced seven batters and didn’t retire one of them. The Yankees lost 15-7 and trailed by 6 1/2 games.

The next day, Rick Porcello pitched a complete-game one-hitter. The Yankees lost 4-1 and trailed by 7 1/2 games.

The two losses in the first two games of the series essentially ended the Yankees’ chances at the division, but just for good measure, they were shut out for eight innings by former Yankee bust Nathan Eovaldi in the third game of the series in what would be another 4-1 loss. In the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball, the series and Yankees’ division chances hit rock bottom when Aroldis Chapman blew a three-run, ninth-inning lead with three walks and a single coupled with a Miguel Andujar error. The Yankees would lose in the 10th after Jonathan Holder gave up a single, wild pitch, intentional walk and game-winning single, all with two outs, essentially pooping his pants on the Fenway Park mound for the second time in roughly 72 hours. The Yankees lost 5-4, were swept in the four games and left Boston four games worse than they arrived, trailing by 9 1/2 games in the division with 52 to play.

The Yankees’ inability to win the division forced them to play one game to reach the ALDS, use Luis Severino in that one game, then go to Boston for the first two games of the ALDS and face a rested Red Sox team, which was able to coast for the last two months of the season, and a rested Chris Sale, as the Red Sox were able to line up their rotation for the Yankees. Had the Yankees won the division, maybe the Red Sox lose the one-game playoff to the A’s or maybe they have to fly across the country to Oakland for the one-game playoff and then fly back across the country to New York for the ALDS. Either as the first or second wild card, the Red Sox would have had to burn Sale in the one game and wouldn’t have been able to use him until Game 3 and then would have only been able to start him once in the five-game series. Unfortunately, none of this happened.

Maybe the 2018 Red Sox would have won the World Series whether or not the Yankees won the division and whether or not Aaron Boone managed Games 3 and 4 of the ALDS like he had been introduced to the game of baseball earlier that week. The Yankees had their chances to stay in the division race and win it, but they didn’t take care of business against awful opponents, which the Red Sox did, they didn’t show up with the season on the line in Boston, which the Red Sox did. That was the difference in 2018, not the injuries or the Red Sox being some sort of team of destiny.

This season has been different. The Yankees have used a replacement roster the entire season, haven’t had Luis Severino, Dellin Betances or Didi Gregorius for a single game, have had Giancarlo Stanton for three games, haven’t had Aaron Judge since Easter weekend, didn’t have Aaron Hicks for the first six weeks of the season, lost Miguel Andujar to season-ending surgery and have watched Gary Sanchez, Clint Frazier, James Paxton and now CC Sabathia all land on the injured list at some point. The Yankees’ starters have gotten hurt, their backups have gotten hurt and their backups’ backups have gotten hurt. Yet somehow, they are in first place in the AL East with a 36-19 record and plus-74 run differential. They have two more wins than the Rays, but are tied with the Rays in the loss column, and they lead the Red Sox by eight in the loss column.

The 2019 Yankees’ success has been built on their ability to rack up wins against teams under .500 (23-9) and play good enough against teams .500 or better (13-10). It’s the formula that led to their success in the ’90s and 2000s, and one they have been trying to get back to in recent years. It’s the same formula which led to the Red Sox’ division title last season.

The AL East is a three-team race this season. It would have been one last season too if there had been any games left as the 90-win Rays became unbeatable late in the season. This year, the Rays didn’t wait to put it all together, they started winning on Opening Day and haven’t stopped since. The last thing the Yankees want to be part of is a three-team race, in which one team is headed for the ALDS and the runner-up and possibly also second-runner up are headed to the one-game playoff. I’ve had enough of the one-game playoff over the last four seasons, and I don’t want the first season in this current championship window to have to go through one.

The goal is to win the division, and the easiest way to outlast the Rays and Red Sox is to first turn the three-team race into a two-team race. Force the weaker team into the wild-card picture and worry about scoreboard watching one opponent throughout the regular season. The Yankees’ and Rays’ hot starts combined with the Red Sox’ disastrous start have made it possible for the Yankees to turn the AL East race into a two-team race as early as this weekend. The Yankees can do to the Red Sox what the Red Sox did to them in a four-game series last year, just much earlier in the season.

The Yankees’ eight-game lead over the Red Sox in the loss column through 55 games is shocking. I never expected the 2019 Red Sox to win the way the 2018 Red Sox did since I never expected the 2018 Red Sox to win the way they did, but I certainly didn’t see them battling to stay above .500 after two months. The Yankees have a chance to end the Red Sox’ division chances over the next four days.

As of now, the Yankees are on pace to win 106 games and they are getting closer to getting Gregorius, Judge and Stanton back in the lineup, Betances in the bullpen and Severino in the rotation. For as good as they have been, they are about to get deeper and better. The Red Sox are on pace to win 84 games, which won’t last, but even if it did, you can’t fault them. They won the World Series last year. They earned the right to have a down year.

If the Yankees played one-game-over-.500 baseball for the rest of the season (54-53), they would finish with 90 wins. The Red Sox would have to go 61-45 just to tie them in that scenario. The Red Sox would have to play .575 baseball for the rest of the season if the Yankees played as poorly as .505 baseball. Maybe the Replacement Yankees would have played .505 baseball or worse over 107 games. The Real Yankees, which are close to being a thing, aren’t going to.

If the Yankees were to win three out of four this weekend, those numbers become even more ridiculous. Then the Yankees could go 52-51 (.505) the rest of the way and the Red Sox would have to go 61-41 (.598) to tie them. If the Yankees sweep? They could go 52-51 (.505) and the Red Sox would have to go 63-39 (.618).

Even if the Yankees were to win two and lose to in the four-game series, they wouldn’t lose any ground to the Red Sox, and four more games, and four more games each other, would be off the schedule. If the Yankees were to disappointingly lose three of four, or embarrassingly get swept, they would still have either a six- or four-game loss column lead.

The Yankees have built themselves a nice cushion to work with and an impressive loss column lead when it comes to the Red Sox. Now it’s time to extend that lead, end the Red Sox’ division chances and turn the focus for the remaining four months of the season to the team I have said for Yankees fans to be worried about all along: the Rays.

***

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

When the Yankees began the season with a 5-9 record, I feared the worst. I figured the first season of the current window of opportunity would be wasted by injuries and with Mike Tauchman batting fifth, Gio Urshela as the everyday third baseman, Austin Romine and Kyle Highashioka behind the plate and Tyler Wade playing all over the field, it made sense to assume that. The Yankees were putting another regular starting position player on the injured list seemingly every other day and the Rays couldn’t lose.

Somehow the Replacement Yankees didn’t just keep the season afloat in terms of the postseason picture and division race for the first two months of the season, they put the team at the top of the division, winning 10 of 11 series since that horrendous start. Urshela became an actual asset; Tauchman and Wade were sent back down; Thairo Estrada emerged as a real potential piece for the future; Romine went back to being a mediocre backup; Cameron Maybin proved he can still play and the starting rotation and elite relievers did the rest.

I will never forget the 2019 Replacement Yankees, I just don’t want to have to watch them all season. Thankfully, I won’t. Didi Gregorius is close to returning, Aaron Judge is about to begin swinging and Giancarlo Stanton is scheduled to begin baseball activities again at the end of this week (barring yet another setback for yet another different injury). On the pitching side, the Yankees are getting James Paxton back on Wednesday, Dellin Betances has been throwing and Luis Severino has been pain free for two to three weeks and is set to start throwing on flat ground soon. Unfortunately, Miguel Andujar won’t play again this season, and therefore the 2019 Yankees won’t play a single game with their expected lineup for the season.

As the Yankees get healthy, some tough decisions will have to be made about who gets sent down, who gets designated for assignment and then who plays once the dust settles from all the roster moves. Let’s figure out what the Yankees’ 25-man roster will look like in the coming weeks.

Didi Gregorius Returns, Thairo Estrada Gets Sent Down
It’s hard not to envision a middle infield for the next nearly decade with Estrada and Gleyber Torres. That would mean the end of Gregorius as a Yankee, but that’s not that unreasonable, considering Gregorius is coming off a major surgery, will be a free agent at the end of the season, will be 30 on Opening Day next season and LeMahieu is signed through next season and could serve as an insurance policy or bridge. However, the Yankees love Gregorius, he’s an elite shortstop both offensively and defensively and he’s a left-handed bat. There’s a chance Estrada could eventually mean the end of Gregorius’s Yankees tenure, but for now it’s the other way around.

Estrada did nothing wrong to deserve this demotion. Despite appearing in only 22 games over 38 days, all Estrada did was hit and hit and hit some more. He’s played left field for the first time ever out of necessity, as well as second and short, while serving as a pinch hitter and pinch runner. He’s batting .304/.347/.565 and it seems unfair someone with a .912 OPS in the majors is headed back to long bus rides in the minors. There’s been little playing time for Estrada as is as he’s had only three more plate appearances in 22 games with the Yankees than he did in 10 games in Triple-A, so he’ll go down, play every day and be the first infielder back up should another injury present itself.

Giancarlo Stanton Returns, Cameron Maybin Gets Designated for Assignment
I don’t know if Stanton will return before Judge, but I’m going to assume it since his current injury is less severe and he’s less removed from baseball activities. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Judge beats Stanton back.

I wouldn’t do this move, it just seems like the most likely. When Stanton returns, the Yankees will have Stanton (or Judge if he’s back before Stanton), Aaron Hicks, Clint Frazier, Brett Gardner and Maybin on the roster, and it’s hard to think they will keep five outfielders on the 25-man roster, even if all five are better roster options than bat-only Kendrys Morales, whose bat isn’t exactly enough to warrant a major league roster spot.

Maybin, like Estrada has done nothing to deserve being removed from the roster. He has come up with big hits, unbelievable catches and has been a breath of fresh air on the bases. I have said both in jest and serious at times that I would keep Maybin even over Brett Gardner though that would never happen. Maybin has proven to the rest of baseball he can still play, and if’s not as a Yankee, I have to think one of the other 29 teams will make a play for him. Once Maybin is off the Yankees’ 25-man, the Yankees will lose him.

Aaron Judge Returns, Kendrys Morales Gets Designed for Assignment
I would get rid of Morales before Maybin, but that’s not going to happen. Between the crowded outfield once Stanton (or Judge) returns, Morales being a left-handed bat and an experienced veteran, whose clubhouse presence throughout his whole career has been raved about, he’s going to hold on to his roster spot for as long as it’s possible.

We’ll always have that mammoth blast from Morales, which nearly reached the upper deck in Yankee Stadium, something that has been accomplish only a few times. It’s going to take a miracle or a complete turnaround for Morales to remain on the Yankees and avoid losing his second major league roster spot this season after the A’s previously designated him for assignment before trading him to the Yankees. The Yankees have enough players to serve as the designated hitter that there’s just no way they will keep Morales on the 25-man hitting the way he has. One day we will all look back and think “Remember when Kendrys Morales was on the Yankees?” the same way we do for Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner and Vernon Wells, who were all Yankees in the same season. Wow was that 2013 season miserable.

Sometime between now and the All-Star break, the Yankees could be at full strength or at as full strength as possible now since Andujar is out for the season, and then they will have a whole new problem about who plays and who bats where in the lineup. If there aren’t any injuries between now and then (knock on all the wood), the Yankees’ 25-man roster would look like this:

Gary Sanchez
Austin Romine
Luke Voit
DJ LeMahieu
Gleyber Torres
Didi Gregorius
Gio Urshela
Brett Gardner
Aaron Hicks
Aaron Judge
Giancarlo Stanton
Clint Frazier
Luis Severino
Masahiro Tanaka
James Paxton
J.A. Happ
Domingo German
CC Sabathia
Aroldis Chapman
Dellin Betances
Adam Ottavino
Zack Britton
Tommy Kahnle
Chad Green
Jonathan Holder

If the Yankees could go 35-19 overall and 30-10 in their last 40 to achieve first place in the best division in baseball with the replacement roster they have had to use for the first two months of the season, what will they do with that 25-man roster? I look forward to finding out.

***

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

The Giancarlo Stanton injury saga has taken another turn. The Yankees’ highest-paid player, who went on the injured list on April 1 with a biceps strain still hasn’t returned. The biceps strain, which shut him down, became a shoulder strain, which shut him down, and now he has a calf strain, which has shut him down yet again.

The Giancarlo Stanton injury saga has taken another turn. The Yankees’ highest-paid player, who went on the injured list on April 1 with a biceps strain still hasn’t returned. The biceps strain, which shut him down, became a shoulder strain, which shut him down, and now he has a calf strain, which has shut him down yet again.

How did we get here? Let’s go through it all.

On April 1, Stanton went on the injured list with a biceps strain. He told reporters he hurt himself swinging at a 3-1 pitch during his third at-bat on March 31. He winced and wiggled his arm after the swing, but thought it might be a cramp so he remained in the game. The following day, he said he hoped for a “speedy” recovery.

“I don’t like it at all,” Stanton said on April 1. “I just worked for six weeks to get here, plus the offseason. I’d much rather this would have popped in spring training, but it’s where we’re at. I don’t have to start from scratch when I come back, but I’ve just got to build everything up and make sure everything is ready to go when I’m back.”

Yet another injured Yankee at the time, and yet another injured Yankee, who initially thought he would be out for the minimal injured list time of 10 days and wouldn’t have to build completely back up.

“In the middle of the game, you’ve got your adrenaline pumping,” Stanton said. “You want to stay out there. Once you’ve settled down and get undressed and showered, that’s when your gauges are a little better. Things start tightening up if they’re not right.”

At the time, the Yankees were without Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius in the lineup. Stanton would also be joined by Miguel Andujar on the injured list that day, and four of the nine regular everyday players would be missing after three games.

“Especially how last year went, a bunch of us were down,” Stanton said. “We didn’t really have our full squad the whole year. All that goes into it, especially where we’re at now. It’s unfortunate right now. I guess it’s better to be in the beginning than the end of the year.”

Aaron Boone said Stanton would be completely shut down for 10 days before beginning to work his way back.

“Hopefully we get him back at some point this month,” Boone said.

Just like the situation with Hicks, Aaron Boone was fooled into thinking the injury would be nothing more than a minor thing. On April 2, Jon Heyman reported the “Yankees are hopeful Stanton can be back in three weeks.”

On April 9, it was reported Stanton might hit off a tee the following day (April 10) or the day after that (April 11).

Five days later, on April 14, Stanton said his rehab for his left biceps strain is “on track,” but was unsure of when he would return, while also saying he stills feels the strain “a little bit.” He took swings the day before (April 13) for the second time since suffering the injury though had yet to swing at 100 percent. Asked if he would need a rehab game, he said he wouldn’t.

“At this point, I wouldn’t need one,” Stanton said. “But if I’m out three or four weeks, I probably should.”

The Yankees were in Anaheim on April 22 in the middle of a nine-game, 10-day West Coast trip when they announced Stanton was now dealing with a shoulder issue and would see a specialist in Southern California. He would receive a cortisone shot in his shoulder that day. The biceps injury had healed and now there was a shoulder injury to deal with.

“He’s had some shoulder stuff in the past,” Boone said in Anaheim. “I don’t know if it’s a little bit of a result of that. We figured now while he’s down coming from this, let’s just make sure we treat this the best we can so it doesn’t become a lingering issue if we can help it.”

Stanton had a shoulder injury with the Marlins back in 2013, but that was six years ago. For Boone to hint it could be related to that and then say he doesn’t want this to be a lingering issue, wouldn’t a six-year-old shoulder injury popping up be the exact definition of a “lingering issue”?

“He has had some residual stuff with his shoulder,” Boone said. “He got a shot, here a couple of days ago. So he is in Day 2 or 3 of not swinging.”

Stanton would remain in Southern California to work with a rehab specialist, while the team went on to San Francisco for a three-game weekend series. Stanton would then rejoin the team in Arizona the following week.

“We’ve got to let the shot settle, and that’s probably another day or two of no swinging,” Boone said. “Then he should be able to ramp up pretty quick and start swinging when we get to Arizona.”

On May 6, five days after the team had left Arizona, Stanton spoke to the media for the first time since the shoulder issue was reported and gave the vaguest of answers in regards to the mysterious injury.

“Just give it some extra time,” Stanton said. “The biceps blowing out, the whole arm had to get strength to build with each other. Just give it more time.”

Stanton had clearly been informed of the Yankees’ new media strategy of not giving any sense of a target return date after the debacle that began last July with Aaron Judge’s wrist injury and continued this season with various missed timetables and missed diagnosis.

“I don’t know,” Stanton said in reference to a timetable for his return. “Start swinging again and then go from there.”

Clearly annoyed with the questions, Stanton continued to be vague.

“Just going to ramp it up and see how it goes,” Stanton said. “So there’s no major update for you guys.”

The same “ramp it up” Boone spoked about 11 days earlier? When asked another time in a different way to try to pull an answer from him, Stanton didn’t budge.

“No major update for you guys,” Stanton said. “Hit tomorrow, then go from there.”

Stanton did begin to hit, and on May 11, Boone offered an update.

“Reports are it went pretty well yesterday,” Boone said. “He hit a fair amount.”

On May 13, Stanton took live at-bats for the first time and was going to do the same the following day. He’s at the Yankees’ Player Development complex in Tampa hitting off live pitching and performing defensive drills. Brian Cashman said Stanton was “progressing” while Boone gave the weirdest injury update of all time to MLB.com.

“Just not quite right,” Boone said regarding Stanton’s shoulder. “I don’t know the exact diagnosis of it. He’s through the biceps injury, but there has just been that lingering shoulder stuff that he’s trying to get knocked out. Basically, it’s just coming back from that now and ramping up.”

Another “ramping up” reference! Boone continued and said there’s no tear in his shoulder though that doesn’t mean there isn’t one given the Yankees’ diagnosis of their players this season.

“No, it’s just … whatever,” Boone said. “I mean, guys have different stuff going on with their … and he’s got … I don’t know what exactly is going on in there other than it’s obviously not exactly right or else he would have been back a bit ago.”

A “whatever”? Is that the official diagnosis for the left shoulder injury of a player owed $270 million, who originally went on the injured list with a biceps issue?

“Moving in the right direction,” Boone continued. “I think he had like nine at-bats yesterday and more of the same today, doing hsi defensive work and running. So I feel like hopefully he’s moving to really start to get some at-bats and we can start thinking about getting him back.”

Pressed for a more detailed answer, Boone was asked if this whole situation was unusual.

“Right, and he doesn’t have a perfect shoulder by any means,” Boone said. “He’s dealt with varying degreees of just a dead period or some soreness in there and whatnot. As far as a diagnosis of what exactly it is, I don’t have it for you.”

To that point, the manager of the New York Yankees had been without his highest-paid player for exactly a month and a half and hadn’t been informed of the player’s injury and diagnosis. An injury which popped up despite the player already being on the injured list for a different injury, and the different injury originally had a timetable of an April return.

On May 16, Stanton was hit by a pitch on the knee while taking live batting practice. Four days later, on May 20, Stanton played in a rehab game in High-A and homered in the game.

The following day (May 21), Stanton was scratched from his rehab game. Boone called the scratch “precautionary” and everyone thought it had to do with the hit by pitch on his knee five days earlier.

“It’s hard to pin down exactly what happened,” Boone said. ” In talking to G, he feels like it’s a result of that [hit by pitch]. It’s where he got hit on the knee/calf. So not sure exactly, but that’s kind of his feeling on what happened.”

Boone was wrong once again. The scratch wasn’t “precautionary” and the following day (May 22), the Yankees announced Stanton would be shut down for a week to 10 days and returned to the injured list with what is being called a “mild calf strain”.

“There’s a lot of season left for Stanton to impact,” Boone said. “Good news is at least it seems somewhat minor in the grand scheme of things.”

Minor? There’s no injury that has been minor with the 2019 Yankees, let alone Stanton who has now suffered two subsequent injuries to his initial injury despite not playing.

“Obviously we want G back, and I know he wants to be here — yesterday,” Boone said. “It’s a bump in the road, but hopefully it’s not something that keeps him down very long, and he gets ramped back up.”

Another “ramp” reference!

“Once he’s cleared again,” Boone said, “It should go very quickly.”

That line from Boone all but assured Yankees fans it won’t go quickly, as the Yankees manager and the organization have missed on every injury timetable dating back to Aaron Judge’s broken wrist last season.

This season, the Yankees were uninformed about Luis Severino’s lat injury; they wildly missed their timetable of Aaron Hicks’s spring training injury; they sat Gary Sanchez in Houston with a leg issue only to have him enter the game as a pinch hitter before putting him on the injured list the following day; they let Clint Frazier play the remaining three innings of a game after he sprained his ankle and had it taped before putting him on the injured list, they recently put Miguel Andujar back on the injured list for the labrum tear they said he was ready to play with earlier this month only to then have him undergo season-ending surgery. So no, I don’t believe Stanton’s rehab will “go very quickly” once he’s no longer shut down.

No one knows when Stanton will actually be back and given the way the 2019 Yankees have handled injuries with missed timetables and uneducated updates, no one should expect to know when he will really be back. Thankfully, the Replacement Yankees continue to win games because the Replacement Yankees are more and more becoming the actual Yankees.

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