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Updates: Cervelli sustained fractured right hand, will have surgery and miss at least 6 weeks. Nova has right elbow pain, MRI later tonight.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 27, 2013
After taking a baseball off the knuckles in the first inning of tonight's game, Francisco Cervelli left the game for x-rays that revealed a fracture in his hand. In a different year, on a different Yankees team, maybe this isn't that much of a blow. Unfortunately, it is a crushing blow to a team that will now have to press on without one of its hottest right-handed bats for a minimum of six weeks. Austin Romine was pulled from the RailRiders' game mid-inning, signaling that he should be with the team in New York tomorrow, but Chris Stewart will likely be the starting catcher with Romine acting as his backup.
Cervelli has been off to a fantastic start this year, and it's so disappointing to see it screech to a halt this way. Hopefully, he comes back and succeeds as the Yankees' starting catcher going forward; but it's truly a bummer for one of the most exciting guys on the team, and one of the ones you can't help but root for. I'm going to miss that crazy man.
Such a tough injury for Cervelli; said so many times it was his dream to be the starter. Who knows what the situation will be in 6+ weeks?
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 27, 2013
Unfortunately, the injury woes didn't end there. As mentioned above, Ivan Nova left the game with pain in his elbow and is headed for an MRI tonight. More on that when we hear details, but it is possible that the Yankees could end up putting Kevin Youkilis, Cervelli, and Nova all on the disabled list tomorrow.
Potential options are for them to call up Corban Joseph or place Derek Jeter on the 60-day DL and add third baseman David Adams to the 40-man roster. If Nova needs DL time, David Phelps will likely slide into the rotation and someone like Cody Eppley would be recalled for bullpen help. We'd all love for them to put Ben Francisco out by the curb and call up someone like Mark Montgomery or Zoilo Almonte instead, but those are basically pipe dreams at this point. Either way, there will be new faces on this roster somewhere or another tomorrow.
Update, kind of:
Girardi said he'll play catching "by ear" between Stewart and Romine, see how Romine does
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 27, 2013