Inside The Pinstripes

COVID-19 Issues, Injuries Leave Yankees Short-Handed For Crucial Stretch

The Yankees are missing a handful of players with the second half of the season – and an important slate of games – about to begin.

Gary Phillips

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees will not be at full strength when the second half of the season begins Friday night against the Red Sox in the Bronx.

New York, 46-43, is trying to climb out of a fourth-place hole after an uneven and disappointing showing prior to the All-Star break. That attempted scramble starts with four games against first-place Boston, a team that has already handily swept the Yankees twice in as many series this season.

To make matters worse, the Bronx Bombers are once again dealing with internal COVID-19 issues, as well as injuries, leaving them without several key contributors. While the team activated trusted reliever Zack Britton and gave outfielder Trey Amburgey a well-deserved promotion on Thursday, the Yankees also placed pitchers Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta on the COVID-19 injured list due to health and safety protocols. The original series-opener between the Yanks and Sox was then postponed.

Friday came the COVID-19 I.L. additions of Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela and Kyle Higashioka. Luke Voit was also placed on the regular injured list with left knee inflammation. Naturally, numerous other roster moves were required to put together a lineup with a spring training feel.

In addition to the aforementioned absences, the Yankees will also enter the second half without pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga (COVID-19 I.L.), Michael King (finger), Darren O’Day (hamstring), and Corey Kluber (shoulder), as well as Miguel Andújar (wrist) and Clint Frazier (vision-related). With a crucial string of games on the horizon, it’s a less than ideal time for the Yankees to be banged up and enduring their second outbreak of the season.

"Paper is paper, the game is the game. Anything's possible once it's 7:05 and the game starts," Gerrit Cole, Saturday’s starter, said on Friday. “We can get a couple bounces our way. We can get a couple bounces that don’t go our way. Whether you have super talented players or not, at some point you’re going to have to persevere through what the game is throwing at you.”

How the Yankees' COVID-19 Outbreak Will Impact New York's Pursuit of a Playoff Spot

A lot is being thrown at the Yankees right now, and with the Trade Deadline just 14 days away, they need to show that they can win against good competition. New York must pick up some games against the Red Sox this week before two more home contests with a similarly mediocre Phillies team that embarrassed the Yankees last month.

That series against Philadelphia will be New York’s easiest between now and the deadline. After that, it’s another four games with the Red Sox, this time in Boston. The Yankees will then head to Tampa for three games against the American League Wild Card-leading Rays. 

That will be New York’s final series before the July 30 trade deadline, at which point their status as buyers, sellers or neutral bystanders will have likely already been cemented.

Playing short-handed won’t help their case when it comes to falling into the first category, but recent Yankees teams have been able to effectively implement a “Next Man Up” philosophy. We’ll see if that happens here. With the All-Star break freshly in the rearview mirror and two off days on the schedule between now and July 30, the Yankees may also have some opportunities to avoid taxing their pitchers.

However, it’s going to take a lot more than that for the Yankees to make it through a two-week period that could determine this team’s future. Whatever determination is made, it will come without some of New York’s best players on the field for at least a significant portion of that stretch.

“We have enough help to do those things out here to get the job done,” Cole said, projecting confidence in an unproven group of players that now have an opportunity to rise to the occasion.

Time will tell if he’s right. 

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Gary Phillips
GARY PHILLIPS

A graduate of Seton Hall, Gary Phillips has written and/or edited for The Athletic, The New York Times, Sporting News, USA Today Sports’ Jets Wire, Bleacher Report and Yankees Magazine, among others. He can be reached at garyhphillips@outlook.com.

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