Knee sends CC to shelf

Remember how the Yankees brought in all that pitching insurance before the nonwaiver trade deadline? It may not have been enough. Monday, they had to put veteran lefty CC Sabathia on the disabled list with right-knee inflammation.

The big lefty pitched six scoreless on Sunday in the Yankees’ 7-2 victory over the Rangers, but seemingly tweaked his surgically-repaired right knee.

“His knee is always the biggest concern with CC. He kind of had to grind through that last start as well as he did pitch with it,” Aaron Boone said. “He kind of came to us and said it was barking pretty loud. So we decided it’d be best to DL him now. It means he’ll miss only one start and kind of maintain that. The swelling isn’t bad, which is a good sign. So we do believe it’s just one turn through and hopefully something that benefits him down the stretch.”

While the Yankees called up right-handed reliever George Kontos to take Sabathia’s roster spot before Monday night’s makeup of the Subway Series finale at Yankee Stadium, they will need to make another move on Wednesday.

The Yankees are switching up their rotation; they are starting J.A. Happ in his regular turn tonight and calling up Luis Cessa to make the start Wednesday.

That allows the Yankees to push back Masahiro Tanaka, who took his first loss since April on Friday.

Cessa is 1-2 with a 3.14 ERA in three starts for the Yankees this season.

The Yankees added Happ and Lance Lynn at last month’s non-waiver trade deadline to bolster the back end of a shaky rotation. Now, those two are the most consistent starters over the last two weeks. Lynn, originally scheduled to be a long man in the bullpen, had to move into the rotation in place of Sonny Gray, who has struggled.

The Yankees traded cash considerations to Cleveland for Kontos last month, bringing him back to the organization he “grew up in.” Kontos was the Yankees’ fifth-round draft pick in 2006 and made his major-league debut with the Bombers in 2011. He was dealt to the Giants in 2012 in return for catcher Chris Stewart.

Sabathia also went on the disabled list with the same knee ailment around this time last year. He missed just one start. Sabathia, 38, is 7-4 with a 3.32 ERA in 22 starts this season.

The Yankees also recalled infielder Ronald Torreyes Monday and sent first baseman/DH Luke Voit to Triple-A .

WELCOME BACK TO THE BRONX

Gary Sanchez rejoined the team Monday after a week of rehab in Tampa. The catcher, who is on the disabled list with a groin injury, ran on the field in Tampa for the first time on Sunday. He is expected to ramp up his running and catching work this week with the team, but Boone said Monday they are still looking at a few weeks before he returns, sticking with GM Brian Cashman’s initial projection of a late August/early September return.

“I think that’s very fair,” the Yankee skipper said. “Now we’ve given him baseball activities with some urgency, we’ll start to get a better feel for that. Think that’s a fair timeline. It looks very much like he is on that trajectory.”

In other rehab news, Aaron Judge, who is on the disabled list with a chip fracture in his right wrist, took simulated swings underwater, Boone said.

“He did some underwater stuff yesterday, like swinging. …. I feel like we’re any day from getting a bat,” Boone said. “I know he was getting some more test results today, just to check to see how it’s healing.”

The Yankees had initially hoped Judge would be able to swing a bat in a “game situation,” at the end of this week.