Yanks hold off on roster move
HOUSTON -- Giancarlo Stanton suffered a strained right quad in Saturday night's Game 1 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park and was out of the lineup for Sunday night's second game of the ALCS.
The Yankees, however, are holding off on making a roster change in the hopes he will be able to recover with a day off today.
“We're giving it today, you know, hopefully with the off day tomorrow. Hopefully it's something that he'll be able to come back from. It was on his first hit getting down the line,” Aaron Boone said before Sunday's game. “He was able to obviously finish the game and get through the game but he did injure it a little bit. So we'll see how he responds the next couple of days and hopefully we can by that time, hopefully he'll be an option for us. You know, after that he would be a pinch-hitting option and available tonight, so we'll see how the next couple of days play out.”
Stanton injured the leg running out a ground ball to shortstop in the second inning. Boone said he was not aware of the injury until after the game. Stanton, who hit a sixth-inning home run before he was removed for defense, had an MRI after the game. The Yankees said there would be no need for further testing.
“When I took him out it was the normal. It wasn't because of anything other than his last at-bat,” Boone said.
Boone went with Cameron Maybin in left field Sunday night over Aaron Hicks, who was activated off the injured list for this series. Boone said he liked Maybin's defense in left field. Also, Hicks does not have a good history against Astros' right-hander Justin Verlander, who was starting Sunday night.
“It was a close decision for me. You know, obviously Verlander is a tough matchup in this building with left field being smaller. I didn't really want to take (Brett Gardner) out of center for Hicks' first game back, throw him in there to Verlander,” Boone said. “You know I like the GardyMaybin center left (alignment) here. But, you know, Aaron certainly is in play and, you know, depending on what goes on with G, this would certainly open the door for him moving forward.”
Stanton played just 18 regular-season games this season because of a long list of injures. He strained his left biceps in March and suffered a shoulder issue during the rehab from that injury. While ramping up to return from the shoulder injury, Stanton strained his left calf. He returned for six games before injuring his right knee. Stanton was out for 73 more games before returning Sept. 18 to try to ramp up for the playoffs.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman said that the number of injuries and limited time to rehab and return could be a contributing factor to Stanton's latest issue.
“Obviously I don't think it's a long-term concern. Clearly we're dropping him deep into the pool, you know, because it's playoff baseball and we run him out there, Cashman said. “The timeframe getting him ready, it's not like a spring training where you get to start three games out on your legs and pull them from the defensive side and then the next week you get them up to five innings and then the next week you have the nine innings and they do the back-tobacks.”
Stanton is in the fifth year of a 13-year, $325 million contract he originally signed with the Marlins. Cashman said he is not concerned about Stanton's long-term ability to stay healthy.
The Yankees have dealt with injuries all season long and have made their ability to overcome them part of their team persona of “Next Man Up.”
Without Staton in the starting lineup Sunday, the Yankees just shrugged it off.
“We're really liking what we're seeing since (Stanton's) came back with his at-bats, you know, obviously, you know he's a game changer,” Boone said. “But we also feel great about, you know, what we have with Hicks being back in the fold and what Cameron has been for us all year.”