NEW YORK — All in all, the Yankees went into their second day off of the season Monday in a solid place. You’d just seen ace Gerrit Cole fight his way through a complete shutout against the Twins. They are second in the American League East, tied on points with the Blue Jays at 10-6. Several key players took steps to return to the field. But there was a 6-foot-6, 245-pound ominous cloud hovering over their save.
The Yankees learned that an MRI showed Giancarlo Stanton had a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, a person with knowledge of the team’s hiring decisions told The Athletic. The early expectation is that Stanton will be absent between four and six weeks, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements. Considering the slugger’s long injury history, the Yankees could choose to treat him conservatively and see him out even longer. The problem: The Yankees desperately need Stanton’s punch and probably won’t be able to easily replace him with the options on the list.
Here are six other Yankees concerns.
Stay in the field
As Sunday began, the Yankees had an MLB-high 11 injury-list stints, just ahead of the second-ranked Mets, who had 10, according to Spotrac. They added to that total when Stanton went to the IL. Of course, this figure is somewhat skewed. Of those injuries, two occurred last season (Scott Effross, Luis Gil) and another was treated in the off-season (Frankie Montas). But the eight other IL finishes since spring practice began would still put the Yankees near the top third of the league in IL stints. And that doesn’t include DJ LeMahieu, who had a tight quad last week, although LeMahieu seemed unfazed on Sunday.
So what’s the deal? Well, injuries seem to happen throughout the league, and historically most of a team’s trips to the coaching room occur in April, when players are still adjusting to the daily MLB routine. Still, muscle strain seems to be a particular problem for the Yankees.
“Definitely the time of year,” Boone said in Cleveland last week. “Historically April is the right time – so I try to be careful with guys still building them in the month of April. I think 30 percent of injuries over the course of the year are more likely to happen in that first month. So that’s something. For years we tried to learn from it and stay at the top as much as possible.”
Josh Donaldson (hamstring) is scheduled to play a rehab game with Double-A Somerset on Tuesday. He could be back in the Yankees’ lineup as early as Wednesday. Well, what then? Which player would make the most sense to be demoted or reduced to make room for 37-year-old Donaldson, who hit just .125 (2 of 16) in his first five games with one home run and six strikeouts before moving on? the casualty list?
Well, the simple answer would be Oswald Peraza, who was called up in place of Stanton on Sunday. Peraza, the team’s best shortstop aside from Anthony Volpe, has no place to play. Especially without the ability to play third base or the outfield.
Harrison Bader (oblique) is expected to start rehab games this week. It’s unclear how many games it will take him before he’s ready to play midfield again in the Bronx. But if Bader returns, possibly in a couple of weeks, the Yankees may have an interesting (and costly) decision to make. The expectation is they would nominate Willie Calhoun for the assignment, who has no minor league options.
But there’s an argument that the Yankees should finally pull away from Aaron Hicks. The 30-year-old has three years and $30.5 million left on his contract, and the Yankees would hate to swallow the money. But he was again a non-factor offensively. Last year’s shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa has seemingly rushed ahead of him on the midfield depth chart. And it’s hard to remember a Yankees player who’s been booed at home as consistently and for as long as Hicks has. Franchy Cordero has put in an impressive performance but he may need to keep it up to keep his roster spot.
How much leeway does Donaldson get?
Boone said Donaldson will be the Yankees’ third baseman on his return. But there was one caveat. Boone said he will also bring Donaldson back into the lineup after about a two-week break, and he could cycle through the DH spot with Stanton on the IL. LeMahieu would almost certainly be the third base starter if the playoffs started today. But it’s a long season. The Yankees will need depth, as evidenced by their early health issues, and Donaldson still remains a senior defenseman at third base.
However, there is precedent for the Yankees leaving someone like Donaldson out midseason, despite the money ($27 million) he still owes. In 2016, the Yankees watched as Alex Rodriguez struggled through the early months before being pulled from the lineup and granted his unconditional release in August. A-Rod was still owed $27 million — about $6 million for the rest of this season and another $21 million for next.
Speaking of Donaldson throughout spring training, Boone said the Yankees believe he’s still capable of being an offensive force. will it happen
Will Volpe keep making adjustments?
The eye test says Volpe, the Yankees’ top pick, has looked good in the role since he took the first shortstop job on opening day. He’s 7-for-7 in steals. He looked defensively stable. He says the right things and doesn’t let the Bronx spotlight get to him.
But the numbers weren’t big. On his first 47 at-bats, he hit .191 with a homer and a .628 OPS. He’s also paired plenty of strikeouts (16) with a good number of walks (eight).
Make no mistake: Nearly 50 at-bats is nowhere near enough to judge anyone, let alone a player who is considered by many to be one of the game’s top young talents. And it would never be easy. But Volpe needs to keep working on his approach, especially against fastballs in the zone. He also has a high flyball rate (55.6 percent; MLB average is 23.1 percent) and a low line drive rate (11.1 percent; MLB average is 25 percent).
pitching questions
Besides Cole and Nestor Cortes, who can you trust in the Yankees rotation? Domingo Germán was excellent on Saturday but wasn’t good in his first two starts. Left-handers have owned Clarke Schmidt (1.267 OPS, 30 at-bats) and he has an 8.44 ERA in three starts. Jhony Brito was good in his first two starts and then got tagged for seven earned runs while only hitting two outs on Thursday. Carlos Rodón (forearm) and Luis Severino (lat.) each appear to be at least a month away from making their season debuts.
(Photo by Giancarlo Stanton: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)