Injury woes pile up for Yankees as Gregorius could land on DL
Bruised heel latest setback; Judge, Sanchez still out
NEW YORK — Sunday started with such positive health news. Austin Romine had avoided a concussion and Gary Sanchez was making great progress on his return from a groin injury. By the time the Yankees had dismissed the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-2, in American League baseball action in New York, however, things had taken an ominous turn.
An awkward collision at first base left their dynamic shortstop, Didi Gregorius, possibly heading to the disabled list with what the team said is a bruised left heel. And after the game, Aaron Judge made it clear his fractured right wrist had him adjusting the timeline of the bone healing a few more weeks.
The Yankees have an uphill battle ahead of them to keep themselves in the playoff picture and mounting injuries do not help. They gained a game on the Red Sox with the win Sunday, but are still 9 1/2 games back in the American League East. They hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the Astros and A’s, who are in a tie for the AL West division title, for the top wild-card spot.
They need Judge and Gregorius back and in good health to make any playoff run, and Sunday all they could do was hope.
“I mean, we’ll see where we are in 24 hours, maybe the news gets a lot better and we’ll go from there,” Yankee manager Aaron Boone said of Gregorius’ injury.
“Injuries are injuries, they are just part of it. You hope to avoid them as much as you can, especially with the key guys. Whether they are freakish, whether they are significant, whether they’re small; they are all things you have to deal with and we will.”
The bottom line is, however, that the teams who are the healthiest down the stretch are the ones that go furthest in the playoffs. The Yankees are just not getting any healthier.
Gregorius left Sunday’s game after an awkward collision with Blue Jays first baseman Kendrys Morales in the first inning. He remained in the game, scoring on Greg Bird’s grand slam, and played defence in the top of the second before being taken out.
“He’s got a pretty bad bruise on his heel, so it’s something that we’ll kind of monitor over the next 24 hours, could potentially be a DL thing,” Yankee manager Aaron Boone said. “So, not great (news) there. We’ll just see where we are tomorrow. Nothing is broken or anything like that, but he has a pretty significant bruise and there is some swelling in there.
“We’ll know a lot more tomorrow, but it’s a possible DL situation.”
The Yankees still do not have a clear picture of when they will get back Judge, whom they initially thought would be swinging a bat by now.
The slugger said Sunday that he is still experiencing pain in his wrist, almost five days after Judge had a cortisone shot to try and alleviate that pain. The slugger felt good enough to play catch on Friday, but felt pain in the wrist after that, stopping him from taking dry swings that day. He still has not taken dry cuts.
Judge shrugged off those initial projections of a seemingly superhuman recovery Sunday.
“Oh yeah, it’s still healing, it’s still fractured, so there’s still a little bit of pain in there,” Judge said. “That’s what we’re just trying to get past. I think it usually takes four to six weeks for stuff like that to heal. So we’re waiting for those six weeks.”
That would optimistically have Judge healing and gearing up around the time that the Yankees are wrapping up a series in Oakland against the surging A’s.
Sanchez, who played seven games over the past two months with a groin injury, was ramping up his rehab and expected to be playing in rehab games by the end of the week. He would likely need at least a week of minor league games to get ready.