River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues » Luis Severino

The injury bug and a flashback to 2007

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(Presswire)

Twelve Yankees currently reside on the injured list. Twelve! It’s put a pretty big damper on the start of the regular season, to say the least. Sure, a few players on the shelf aren’t surprises: Didi Gregorius and Jordan Montgomery, to name a couple. The Yankees had time to plan for their absences. However, they could have never anticipated the myriad of injuries that have happened since spring training began. It’s a bit reminiscent of 2007, when a handful of Yankees suffered hamstring strains early in the season. This year, there have been various health issues, but a fair amount of them have been muscle strains, stiffness, or soreness.

Prior to 2007, the Yankees hired Marty Miller as the team’s director of performance enhancement. He lost his job by early May. Injuries piled up within a month of the season beginning and it proved to be Miller’s undoing. Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, and Phil Hughes all suffered hamstring strains. Johnny Damon played through a calf strain and Andy Pettitte powered through back soreness from a weight lifting mishap. This season, there have been two calf strains (Troy Tulowitzki and Gary Sanchez), Giancarlo Stanton’s biceps strain, Aaron Hicks’s back stiffness, and Luis Severino’s lat strain. Those seem to be related to strength and conditioning issues. To add insult to injury, there have been some bad luck and pitchers break issues too. Miguel Andujar tore his labrum sliding back into third, Severino had shoulder inflammation before his lat strain, and Dellin Betances has a shoulder impingement and bone spurs.

Aside from the litany of maladies, communication has been a problem as well. Hicks, Betances, and Severino have all had setbacks. How many times have we heard that Aaron Hicks is close to ramping up baseball activities? He was suppose to get back into the swing of things before camp ended. The Yankees downplayed Betances’s velocity in spring training, and now we find out that he’s had a bone spur for years. There was no mention of that when he was initially diagnosed with an impingement. Severino, somehow, suffered a new injury (lat strain) while trying to recover from shoulder soreness.

Matt Krause has been the team’s director of strength and conditioning since the 2014 season. Are all of these muscle injuries his and his team’s fault? Who knows. One thing’s for sure: the optics are bad. Back in 2007, the way things looked almost certainly contributed to the team cutting Miller lose. Even so, Cashman declined to blame Miller for the parade to the disabled list:

Last month, when a rash of muscle-related injuries felled five key players in four weeks, Cashman did not blame Miller or his assistant, Dana Cavalea.

“I’m constantly evaluating everything we do,” Cashman said in a telephone interview at the time. “But do I blame Marty and Dana for this? No.”

Cashman had said there were many reasons the injuries to key Yankees could have occurred, apart from Miller’s new strength and conditioning program, in which some players had declined to participate.

That last sentence is telling, though. Players declining to participate in a team’s strength and conditioning program is not a good look! If that wasn’t the final straw, it was definitely alarming.

This year, Cashman hasn’t placed blame on the training staff. Nonetheless, his reaction to Severino’s lat strain makes it easy to wonder if its starting to become the subject of his ire.

Cashman certainly sounds annoyed that the team has no idea how the ace succumbed to a new injury. On one hand, I could see him questioning if Severino did something extraneous to the “protocol” that caused the injury. That would be a hefty and damning accusation to make, though. On the flip side, it’s the training staff’s responsibility to get players back on the field as soon as possible. The fact that they’re in the dark about how this happened, or perhaps the idea that it was never caught in the first place, is significant. Not only is it a physical issue, but it is also a communication deficiency. These kind of mistakes can (and already have) throw the season way off course.

To give the conditioning team the benefit of the doubt, a few of the players who have gotten hurt have a reputation for being injury prone. Tulowitzki and Hicks, in particular. Further, maybe Severino’s ailments are just a symptom of being a pitcher. Whoever or whatever is to blame, it’s been nothing but bad news all around. Fortunately, like that 2007 team, all of these instances have happened very early on in the season. That squad still won 94 games when it was all said and done. For this team to accomplish that, it needs to get its house in order. Part of that is some better fortune moving forward, but also identifying the source of the numerous muscle strains, setbacks, and communication breakdowns.

Update: Luis Severino shut down six weeks with lat strain

by

(Presswire)

Tuesday: Today’s MRI revealed a Grade II lat strain and Luis Severino will be shut down six weeks, the Yankees announced. They say it is a new injury independent of the rotation cuff inflammation. Six week shutdown means the best case scenario is a mid-to-late June return for Severino. Rats.

Monday: Luis Severino is heading to New York for tests and further examination on his shoulder, Aaron Boone announced this afternoon. Supposedly Severino does not feel any pain, but he is “not where he needs to be” and isn’t making as much progress with his throwing program as expected.

Severino was shut down with rotator cuff inflammation on March 5th and he’s spent the last few weeks throwing down in Tampa. He’s been long-tossing at a distance beyond 120 feet, but has not been able to get back on a mound. That was initially expected to happen a week ago and never did.

Brian Cashman recently said the Yankees were hoping to get Severino back in early May. That is almost certainly not happening now. Even if these latest tests bring back good news, Severino has a lot of rehab work ahead of him to get to MLB ready. Late May or June is probably the best case scenario now.

Given the natural of the injury, the Yankees should move forward as if Severino will not be back at all this year. Treat whatever you get from him as a bonus. If the Yankees don’t want to splurge for Dallas Keuchel, fine, but they should start looking at the trade market, which they probably already are.

CC Sabathia is expected to rejoin the Yankees next weekend, which means either Domingo German or Jonathan Loaisiga will be stashed in Triple-A as depth. The Yankees also have Gio Gonzalez in Triple-A for at least another two weeks. The depth isn’t bad. It’s just that you don’t want to have to use it.

The downside is the Yankees are without their best pitcher and won’t get him back anytime soon. Winning the AL East was going to be difficult with a healthy Severino. Now they have to do it without him for a chunk of the season. Even the best case scenario right now is bad news for the 2019 Yankees.

Game 11: Bounce Back in Houston

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(Getty)

Gosh, did last night’s loss stink, or what? That’s a game the Yankees really have to close out. They emerged from the Masahiro Tanaka vs. Justin Verlander duel with a two-run lead after six innings and the bullpen couldn’t hold it. Everyone did their part except the team’s supposed strength. Annoying.

“(Tanaka) worked pretty hard in the sixth. We were pretty convicted that was it, and set up there to roll out (Zack) Britton there, and obviously (Adam Ottavino) with their righties at the top of the order and then (Aroldis Chapman). So it set up pretty well for us,” Aaron Boone said to George King and Kevin Kernan following the game. “… Yeah it stings a little bit.”

Oh well, can’t do anything about last night’s game now. The Yankees have a chance to even the series at a game apiece tonight and win for the fourth time in their last five games overall. All they have to do is win a game in which their seventh starter is matched up against one of the five best pitchers in the American League. What’s that they say about baseball, Suzyn? Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. DH Gary Sanchez
5. SS Gleyber Torres
6. 2B DJ LeMahieu
7. LF Clint Frazier
8. 3B Gio Urshela
9. C Austin Romine

RHP Jonathan Loaisiga

Houston Astros
1. CF George Springer
2. 2B Jose Altuve
3. 3B Alex Bregman
4. DH Michael Brantley
5. SS Carlos Correa
6. 1B Yuli Gurriel
7. RF Josh Reddick
8. C Robinson Chirinos
9. LF Tony Kemp

RHP Gerrit Cole

Nice warm night in Houston. Warm enough that the Minute Maid Park roof is closed and the air conditioning is on. Tonight’s game will begin at 8:10pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy the ballgame.

Injury Updates: Luis Severino (shoulder) had his MRI late this afternoon and the Yankees don’t have an update yet. They’ll probably have one after the game … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) will play catch tomorrow for the first time since behind shut down. That’s a significant test given the nature of the injury … Dellin Betances (shoulder) faced hitters yesterday and he’s tentatively scheduled to throw a simulated game Thursday.

Game Eight: Beat the Birds

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(Getty)

All the home opener nonsense is over. The Yankees are through the celebratory portion of their schedule and can now, finally, begin the daily grind that is the regular season. They’ve had a bumpy start to the season, to be sure, but they won Thursday and tonight they have a chance to win back-to-game games for the first time this year.

“Had a little bump in the road on our opening homestand and getting hit obviously with injuries here early, but such is the nature of the big league season,” Aaron Boone said to George King on Thursday. “We just happened to get hit with a little bit early. We will be better for having gone through this and we will come storming out of this.”

Tonight J.A. Happ will make his second start of the season and his second start against the Orioles, and gosh, it sure it would be nice to see him keep the ball in the park. He’s allowed eight homers — eight! — in 15.1 innings this year between Spring Training and the regular season. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. 1B Greg Bird
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. SS Gleyber Torres
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Mike Tauchman
9. 2B Tyler Wade

LHP J.A. Happ

Baltimore Orioles
1. 2B Jonathan Villar
2. RF Joey Rickard
3. 1B Trey Mancini
4. DH Renato Nunez
5. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
6. 3B Hanser Alberto
7. C Pedro Severino
8. SS Richie Martin
9. CF Cedric Mullins

RHP Dylan Bundy

After raining all day yesterday, it is partly cloudy and mild in Baltimore today. There’s no more rain in the forecast and that’s the most important thing. Today’s game will begin at 7:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee, heart) will make a rehab start for High-A Tampa tomorrow, and as long as he makes it through okay, he will join the Yankees next weekend. He’s eligible to be activated off the injured list Saturday … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and is getting closer to throwing off a mound. He’s throwing at distances greater than 120 feet … Dellin Betances (shoulder) will face hitters Monday for the first time since being shut down. I’m assuming it’ll be live batting practice or a simulated game rather than a minor league rehab appearance … Aaron Hicks (back) is progressing with his throwing program and will begin swinging a bat in the coming days … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) is taking grounders. He has not swung a bat or thrown yet, which are the big tests.

Rotation Update: Domingo German starts tomorrow, then it’ll be Masahiro Tanaka, Jonathan Loaisiga, and James Paxton in Houston in that order. The Yankees flipped Tanaka and Loaisiga, though Tanaka will still make that start with one extra day of rest. Thursday’s an off-day, which sets Happ up to start Friday’s series opener against the White Sox and Sabathia to take German’s spot Saturday. Or it could be that German stays in the rotation and Loaisiga goes back to Triple-A. We’ll find out soon enough.

Misc. Notes: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela and sent down Thairo Estrada. “(Urshela’s) a guy — with our roster situation right now — is going to play. He’ll play a lot of third base for us. Probably in there tomorrow. I would say he’ll be in there quite a bit while he’s here,” Aaron Boone said to Bryan Hoch. That presumably means LeMahieu goes to second base and Wade goes to the bench.

Game Six: End of the Homestand

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(Elsa/Getty)

The season is only five days old and already it feels like the Yankees are struggling to keep their heads above water. That’s against the Orioles and Tigers too. Two teams projected to lose a combined 195 games this year. The Yankees have been hit hard by injuries and several players who are healthy aren’t contributing much, especially offensively.

“We need to string together some quality at-bats. We’re swinging at some stuff out of the zone and not really sticking to our plan,” said Aaron Judge following last night’s loss. Aaron Boone added: “The guys we have in there are certainly capable of scoring runs. We’ve just got to continue to grind away and find a way right now when we are a little depleted.”

As expected, Jonathan Loaisiga has been recalled to make this afternoon’s start. He is subbing in as the fifth starter while CC Sabathia works his way back. The season is not even a full week old and Loaisiga will already be the 27th different player to appear in a game for the Yankees this year. I’m not liking where this is going. Here are this afternoon’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. 3B DJ LeMahieu
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. C Gary Sanchez
5. 2B Gleyber Torres
6. 1B Greg Bird
7. LF Clint Frazier
8. SS Troy Tulowitzki
9. CF Mike Tauchman

RHP Jonathan Loaisiga

Detroit Tigers
1. 2B Josh Harrison
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. DH Miguel Cabrera
4. CF Niko Goodrum
5. DH Jeimer Candelario
6. LF Christin Stewart
7. C John Hicks
8. SS Jordy Mercer
9. 2B Gordon Beckham

LHP Matt Boyd

It is a splendid afternoon in the Bronx. The sun is out, the sky is blue, and temperatures will be in the 60s. Pretty great day for a ballgame, even if it is crazy windy. Today’s series finale will begin at 4:05pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network locally and MLB Network nationally. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing. Boone did not have a firm date for Severino to throw his first bullpen session but it is expected to be soon … Sabathia is on track to join the Yankees next homestand. He’s got another minor league start coming up this weekend, and it sounds like he’ll return after that as long as everything goes well … Luke Voit (hand) will have his hand wrapped today after that hit-by-pitch last night. Postgame x-rays came back negative, but it is sore, so he’ll have a wrap and a pad to protect it today.

Roster Move: Sabathia was reinstated from the suspended list and placed on the 10-day injured list with what was officially announced as “rehab from cardiac surgery.” Loaisiga has been recalled to get the Yankees back to a full 25-man roster. Playing a man short the last few days was no big deal because they were missing a starting pitcher who wasn’t scheduled to start.

Game Five: Win it for Miggy

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(Mark Brown/Getty)

Despite the win, yesterday was a tough day for the Yankees. They lost Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar to injuries, and the Andujar injury is especially serious. He has a “small” labrum tear and may need season-ending surgery. Andujar and the Yankees will see how he responds to treatment and rehab over the next few weeks before making the surgery decision.

“That’s a tough one, especially the labrum. Anything in the shoulder is pretty complicated. We’ll see how it turns out. He’s a tough individual. He’ll fight through it, no matter how long it is and come back stronger than ever,” Aaron Judge said to Bryan Hoch and Coley Harvey yesterday. “Guys just step up. That’s it. We got a deep farm system, a deep organization, and when guys go down, everyone’s ready to step up and fill their spot.”

The Yankees have a ready-made replacement for Andujar in DJ LeMahieu. Stanton will be replaced by Clint Frazier, who wasn’t available to replace Judge last year. That was a big missed opportunity for Clint. Hopefully he capitalizes on Stanton’s absence and solidifies his long-term place with the Yankees. Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. SS Gleyber Torres
5. 3B DJ LeMahieu
6. LF Mike Tauchman
7. DH Clint Frazier
8. 2B Tyler Wade
9. C Austin Romine

RHP Masahiro Tanaka

Detroit Tigers
1. 2B Josh Harrison
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. DH Miguel Cabrera
4. 3B Jeimer Candelario
5. 1B John Hicks
6. LF Christin Stewart
7. CF Dustin Peterson
8. C Grayson Greiner
8. SS Jordy Mercer

RHP Jordan Zimmermann

It is cold and cloudy in the Bronx and there are some light showers in the forecast later this evening. Doesn’t look like anything that will significantly delay or impact the game. They might play through some rain drops in the late innings, if anything. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee) threw four innings in an Extended Spring Training game yesterday. He’s going to throw five innings with High-A Tampa on Sunday, and if all goes well, he could make his next start after that with the Yankees … Dellin Betances (shoulder) threw a bullpen session today and will face hitters next … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and hasn’t thrown a bullpen session.

Misc. Notes: Greg Bird took ground balls at third base this afternoon, something he’s done many times in the past, though Aaron Boone confirmed Bird is the emergency guy at the hot corner with Andujar down. “It’s not that far-fetched,” said the skipper … As expected, Jonathan Loaisiga will start tomorrow’s series finale. He’ll be the corresponding move when Sabathia is activated off the suspended list and placed on the injured list.

Game Two: Paxton’s Debut

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(Presswire)

Alright alright. The pomp and circumstance of Opening Day is over and the “off-day after Opening Day in case Opening Day gets rained out” off-day is over, so we can now start to get into the day in, day out grind of regular season baseball. The Yankees are looking to start the season 2-0 for the first time since, well, last year, and prized offseason pickup James Paxton is making his Yankees’ debut today.

“I think he came in and really fit in really well right away. I think he’s very comfortable in that room,” Aaron Boone said this morning. “… We want him to post, and we feel like if we can keep him healthy and taking his regular turn, the results will be there. This is a really talented pitcher that I think is capable of even more. I think he’s in a really good spot health-wise, work-wise right now. Just looking forward to him being a significant part of our rotation.”

Paxton is the 13th Canadian to play for the Yankees and the first since Jeff Francis and Chris Leroux in 2014. Man, those 2013-14 teams were a hell of a thing. DJ LeMahieu is also making his Yankees debut this afternoon. He is the 218th player born in California to suit up for the Yankees, which isn’t as noteworthy as Paxton being the 13th Canadian. Anyway, here are today’s starting lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. LF Giancarlo Stanton
4. 1B Luke Voit
5. DH Miguel Andujar
6. C Gary Sanchez
7. 2B Gleyber Torres
8. SS Troy Tulowitzki
9. 3B DJ LeMahieu

LHP James Paxton

Baltimore Orioles
1. 2B Jonathan Villar
2. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
3. 1B Trey Mancini
4. DH Renato Nunez
5. RF Joey Rickard
6. 3B Rio Ruiz
7. CF Drew Jackson
8. C Jesus Sucre
9. SS Richie Martin

RHP Nate Karns (opener)

It is a bit cloudy in the Bronx at the moment, otherwise it is a fine afternoon for a ballgame. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: Luis Severino (shoulder) will long toss again today and is tentatively scheduled for a bullpen session early next week … Dellin Betances (shoulder) with throw a bullpen session today … Aaron Hicks (back) has ramped up his core and conditioning work, but has not yet resumed baseball activities … CC Sabathia (knee) makes his next start in a Extended Spring Training game Monday.

Misc. Notes: Greg Bird is fine. He’s sitting today so LeMahieu can play. Sounds like LeMahieu will be in the lineup the next few days at different positions. My guess is Tulowitzki sits tomorrow with Gleyber at short and LeMahieu at second. We’ll see … Boone said he doesn’t envision Tulowitzki playing three straight days anytime soon. They’re taking it slow with him … Domingo German is pitching Monday in some capacity. Whether the Yankees use an opener depends on their bullpen usage the next few days.