Gleyber goes to IL with thumb sprain; Gio has setback
KANSAS CITY — The bad news keeps piling on. Gleyber Torres was placed on the injured list with a sprained left thumb before Monday’s series opener against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The shortstop jammed the thumb in Sunday’s loss to the Mariners.
And Gio Urshela, who the Yankees had hoped would be back in the lineup by Wednesday, had a setback while running the bases and doing defensive work on Sunday. He’s back in New York dealing with a left hamstring strain.
Torres is the seventh player the Yankees have had to put on the injured list in the last seven days. Still, the Bombers are 5-2 in that span.
“Well, one, we’ve got a lot of really good players that are really focused on winning, and understanding what a critical time we are in our season. There’s no other expectation other than to continue to win games. And we have the players,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Even though we have some really important key players down, we also have a lot of players that are capable of going out and playing at a very high level and winning games. And that is solely the focus.
“So, anytime somebody goes down, whether it’s been an injury, whether it’s been COVID, on a personal level, we certainly try and be there and feel for them and feel for their situation, but from a team standpoint, it’s blinders on and let’s go,” Boone continued. “We have a lot at stake and success is the only option.”
Torres, who was slashing .253/.328/.351 with six home runs in 99 games this season, joins Aroldis Chapman and Urshela on the 10-day IL. Gerrit Cole,
Jordan Montgomery, Gary Sanchez and Anthony Rizzo were all placed on the COVID-19 IL this week.
Boone was being optimistic about Torres, but the shortstop will obviously miss at least 10 to 20 games. He will see specialists to get a clearer picture of the diagnosis and timeline.
“We’ll know a lot more in the next couple of days when he sees specialists and all that. I would say last night we got good news. I think we were concerned that it was going to be more serious,” Boone said.
Urshela would be the Yankees’ back-up shortstop.
“Yesterday when he was out running and then doing his ground balls, he felt a little something towards the end of his ground balls,” the Yankees manager explained. “So he’s back in New York and I don’t anticipate him being with us this week.”
Urshela has been on the IL since Aug. 3 and has played in 84 of the team’s 111 games this season. He was on the COVID-19 IL coming out of the All-Star break and was also on it for a game in May after having a reaction to the vaccine.
Urshela is hitting .274/.315/.439 with 11 home runs and a .754 OPS in those games.
Boone does not think this setback is troublesome enough to set him back to the beginning of his rehab.
“I don’t think it’s that serious. But he was in line to probably join us and be back in the lineup on Wednesday; that’s not going to happen now. So I don’t know how he’s doing today yet ... whether that pushes it back later in the week or into next week,” Boone said. “I don’t have a timeline on that yet, but I don’t think it’s back from where he started.”
The Bombers called up infielder Andrew Velazquez, a Bronx native out of Fordham Prep, to replace him on the roster.