MLB

Yankees holding it together amid mounting injuries, but how much more can they endure?

Troy Tulowitzki is now dealing with a calf strain, making him the 11th Yankee on the injured list this year.

Troy Tulowitzki, who himself is a replacement for injured shortstop Didi Gregorius, is the 11th Yankee to hit the injured list this season.

By Dave Sheinen, The Washington Post

3 minutes to read

BALTIMORE – The New York Yankees constructed a roster this winter with admirable depth, featuring all across the diamond Plan B’s and sometimes C’s and D’s that included former all-stars, highly regarded prospects or, at the very least, solid big leaguers. A $200 million payroll and some long-term vision can do that.

But any team, including the Yankees, would be exposed by the simultaneous losses of, in no particular order, their regular shortstop, third baseman, center fielder, designated hitter, top setup man, Nos. 1 and 5 starting pitchers and a handful of depth options. Put it all together, and a 3-4 record – the Yankees’ mark following an 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday – is perhaps not so surprising or disappointing.

“They’re in the right frame of mind,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of his depleted roster. “We hit a little bump in road, obviously, in getting hit with some injuries here early. But such is the nature of a major league season. We just happened to get hit with it a little bit early.”

Thursday began for the Yankees with another reinforcement walking through their clubhouse door – this time, infield prospect Thairo Estrada, the replacement for veteran all-star Troy Tulowitzki (calf strain), who was himself the replacement for standout shortstop Didi Gregorius (elbow surgery). Estrada, the last infielder remaining on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, is perhaps best known for being shot in an attempted robbery in his native Venezuela in January 2018.

A day earlier, Tulowitzki had become the 11th Yankee to hit the injured list this year, joining Gregorius, center fielder Aaron Hicks (back), DH Giancarlo Stanton (biceps), Miguel Andujar (shoulder), starters Luis Severino (shoulder) and CC Sabathia (heart surgery), reliever Dellin Betances (shoulder), outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (foot) and pitchers Jordan Montgomery (elbow) and Ben Heller (elbow).

“It’s really been crazy,” Tulowitzki said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

All told, the Yankees have more than $85 million in 2019 payroll stashed on the injured list, more than the entire 2019 payroll of the Orioles, as well as a handful of other teams.

Thursday’s win over the Orioles, secured thanks to a pair of home runs by Gleyber Torres and one each from Gary Sanchez and Luke Voit, at least temporarily calmed the sense of panic that was beginning to settle over the Bronx, in the wake of a 2-4 season-opening homestand that featured series losses to the Orioles and Detroit Tigers, two of the weakest teams in the American League.

The Yankees’ April schedule was supposed to have insulated them from potential catastrophe, as 23 of their first 28 games were against teams that finished below .500 in 2018. But in losing two of three to the Tigers, the Yankees hit. 176 and struck out 34 times – including 18 K’s in the series-ending 2-1 loss on Sunday.

One consolation for the Yankees: The rival Boston Red Sox, with whom the Yankees were expected to contend all season for supremacy in the AL East, are off to an even worse start, going 2-6 through their first eight games (all on the road) and settling into last place in the division. The teams, whom combined for 208 wins in 2018, meet in the first of 19 head-to-head matchups April 16 at Yankee Stadium.

By then, the Yankees expect to get the first of their injured stars – most likely Betances – back on the active roster. But the bulk of their missing players will be out a matter of weeks, if not months, rather than days. A rough (and best-case) timeline could see Stanton and Sabathia return toward the end of April; Severino, Hicks and Tulowitzki sometime in May; Heller in June; Gregorius in July; and Montgomery in August. Meantime, Ellsbury’s absence remains open-ended, and Andujar could be out anywhere from a couple of months to a year or more, depending on whether the nonsurgical rehab of his shoulder works.

As Thursday’s power display at Camden Yards showed, the Yankees still have hitters capable of carrying a lineup for long stretches, and even without Betances, the best bullpen in baseball.

“We’ll be better for having gone through this,” said Boone, whose unrelenting positivity has been tested, “and we’ll come storming out of this. I’m sure of that.”

But as deep as the Yankees are, and as solid as they can still appear at times – at least in short bursts against bad teams – there is still an uneasy feeling about them, as if they are just barely holding it all together, and as if one more injury could be the one that finally breaks them.