Zack can’t wait to ‘rejoin the boys’ after surgery
TAMPA — Yankees left-hander Zack Britton had surgery Monday to remove a bone chip from his pitching elbow. The reliever is likely to be out until at least May and perhaps until summer. The team has not specified a timeframe.
Yankees head team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad operated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
“Want to thank Dr. Ahmad and his staff for their excellent work today,” Britton wrote on Twitter. “Excited to start the process of getting myself ready to rejoin the boys.”
Aaron Boone said he will mix and match during the sixth, seventh and eighth innings while Britton heals. Boone has said right-hander Chad Green, side-arming right-hander Darren O’Day, right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga and left-hander Justin Wilson are options.
“I think it comes down to the incision being healed,” Boone said “That’ll tell him when he can start playing catch and start the ramp-up process. So don’t want to really put a timetable on it.”
Aroldis Chapman will close, but he is suspended for the first two games of the season by Major League Baseball for throwing a 101 mph fastball near the head of Tampa Bay’s Mike Brosseau on Sept. 1.
Britton, 33, is a two-time AllStar who was 1-2 with a 1.89 ERA and eight saves in 20 appearances during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He filled in as closer for the first 3 ½ weeks while Chapman missed 21 games recovering from COVID-19.
Catcher Robinson Chirinos is scheduled for surgery on his right wrist today, with Dr. Douglas Carlan in Tampa, six days after Chirinos was by a pitch from Pittsburgh’s Blake Cederlind. Boone said estimated recovery time is four to six weeks.
Infielder-outfielder Miguel Andújar is receiving treatment for a muscle strain in in his right hand, and a nerve issue is being monitored, according to Boone.