Health hasn’t always been on the Yankees’ side during recent stretch runs.
Luis Severino missed the 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery and returned only as a reliever for the end of the 2021 campaign and those playoffs.
Gerrit Cole suffered a September 2021 hamstring injury that his agent, Scott Boras, later said affected the ace’s late-season performance.
DJ LeMahieu (toe) and Andrew Benintendi (broken hamate bone) didn’t appear in the 2022 postseason, which ended with an ALCS sweep by the archrival Houston Astros.
But the Yankees find themselves on a different trajectory this year.
“We are as whole as we’ve been, really in several years,” manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox in the Bronx. “There have been a lot of years where we’ve had good seasons, where we’ve gotten to postseasons, where we had some attrition, where we’ve had some key guys go down for us. I feel like we’re getting guys back now.”
Indeed, the Yankees activated first baseman Anthony Rizzo at the beginning of the month.
Luis Gil (lower back strain) and Clarke Schmidt (lat strain) returned shortly thereafter, bolstering a rotation that has navigated its share of injuries.
Cole has rounded into form after missing nearly the first three months of the season with elbow inflammation. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner entered Saturday with seven consecutive starts of three earned runs or fewer.
Jon Berti just returned from a left calf strain that had landed him on the 60-day IL, giving a speedy boost to the Yankees’ bench.
LeMahieu went on the injured list on Monday with a right hip impingement, though the struggling veteran had lost most of his playing time at third base to trade-deadline acquisition Jazz Chisholm Jr.
And the Yankees called up prized outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez on Monday, adding youth and switch-hitting power to their lineup.
But with that rapid infusion of talent came crunches in the Yankees’ starting staff and outfield.
Marcus Stroman (10-8, 4.08 ERA in 28 starts) is set to spend the Yankees’ next rotation turn as an option out of the bullpen. Nestor Cortes (9-10, 3.90 ERA) pitched 4.1 scoreless innings in relief on Sept. 7.
Dominguez, meanwhile, was called up to play regularly, which means the Yankees will rotate off days for their outfielders. Alex Verdugo was out of the lineup Thursday, while Dominguez sat Friday.
Saturday’s lineup had Verdugo in left field, Dominguez in center field, Aaron Judge as the designated hitter and Giancarlo Stanton on the bench.
Boone said he is taking a series-to-series approach with how he deploys his outfield, weighing factors such as the matchups against opposing pitchers and a desire to give everyone consistent at-bats.
“We’ll just figure it out as we go as best we can,” Boone said. “That’s kind of how I’ve done the last 10 days with some pitching decisions, but I feel like a lot of guys are in good spots from a pitching standpoint, so it’s making the inevitable decisions that we’ll have to make maybe a little more difficult. But good decisions to have.”
INJURY UPDATES
The Yankees could soon add even more reinforcements to their pitching staff, but only if a need presents itself.
Out since mid-June with a right triceps strain, spot starter Cody Poteet began a rehab assignment on Aug. 20 and has made five minor-league appearances since, most recently throwing 64 pitches at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.
Reliever Lou Trivino, meanwhile, owns a 4.91 ERA over 11 innings in the minors this season. He has not appeared in an MLB game since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2023.
“Poteet’s really close,” Boone said Saturday. “He’s almost built up completely, and he’s certainly in those conversations. Lou, I feel like, has been building a lot of good momentum here over the last month, but right now, [there are] not spots for those guys.”