Yankees cut Carter, Austin back in Bronx
It’s over for Chris Carter. The struggling first baseman was designated for assignment after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Friday’s game. Tyler Austin will be called up to take his place and ostensibly will get the lions share of the first base time for now.
Carter was signed to a one-year deal for $3.5 million.
Carter hit .204 with eight homers and 23 RBI. Austin is 6-for-15 with three homers and 11 RBI over his last four games in Triple-A.
ELLSBURY UPDATE
After taking batting practice this week, Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who’s been on the disabled list since May 25 after suffering a concussion, is moving closer to beginning a rehab assignment after passing his latest head scan on Thursday.
“We’re trying to figure out a program for him to get him on a rehab,” Joe Girardi said Friday. “So hopefully it happens pretty soon.”
Once Ellsbury returns Girardi will have to figure out how to best deploy his outfielders. Aaron Hicks has been playing fulltime in center field and entering Friday was hitting .300 with 10 homers and 37 RBI. After Hicks had a two-homer game on June 9, Girardi said Hicks will continue to play “a ton.” Hicks has since cooled down, 6-for-29 in his last seven games.
“I think we’re gonna keep rotating our outfielders because I think it’ll benefit all of them,” Girardi said. “Give them all some days off and play them all and see who’s rolling and really playing well and go by that.
“Obviously you’ve got to see how Jacoby’s doing, but I think you can spell some guys more often and just keep playing guys all the time,” the manager added. “Maybe they DH one day, that sort of thing. One of the outfielders can DH one day if Matt (Holliday) needs a day, or if you put him at first that day. There’s a lot of different things you can do where they’re all playing.”
HEADLEY OUT AGAIN
Chase Headley was out of the lineup for the second straight day because of back spasms, putting the Yankees in a precarious roster situation. With Girardi hoping Headley to be an option again on Sunday, the Yanks could potentially play three straight games, including Thursday when Headley’s back spasms first popped up, without a backup infielder. Headley, who’s had back issues in the past, had an epidural Thursday night. Ronald Torreyes started at third for the second straight day.
Headley said he felt better Friday and could’ve taken batting practice but was told not to as a precaution.
Catcher Austin Romine is considered the emergency backup infielder. The only other reserve position player is outfielder Mason Williams. The Yankees are short a fielder after optioning Rob Refsnyder Thursday to call up southpaw Ty Webb to ensure they had enough options in the bullpen.
“There’s a lot of discussion: Do you go without an extra infielder? That’s kind of what we’ve been talking about, and right now we’re choosing to,” Girardi said. “We’re rolling the dice a little bit.”
Girardi said Romine began taking ground balls at third base on Thursday. Should anything happen to Starlin Castro, Girardi said Torreyes could move to second and Romine would play third. Torreyes would also slide to shortstop if something happened to Didi Gregorius.
The manager didn’t rule out bringing up an infielder for Saturday. “It’s kind of day by day,” he said. “It’s kind of the discussions we had (Thursday) night, (Friday,) dealing with it. It’s kind of based on need, so we’ll see.”