Yankees Injury Update: Andrew Bailey, Slade Heathcott and others

Now that spring training is approaching, more and more information is becoming available about Yankee players who have been rehabbing injuries, and so far it has all been positive.

About a year ago, prior to the start of spring training, the Yankees signed reliever Andrew Bailey to a one-year deal. At the time, Bailey was recovering from season-ending shoulder surgery that he had in July 2013 to repair a torn labrum and a torn capsule. He ended up experiencing a series of setbacks in his rehab, and missed the entire 2014 season. The Yankees re-signed him to a minor league deal over the offseason, and it appears as though he is finally healthy since he's been invited to spring training. Bailey could potentially earn a spot in the bullpen.

Another player who received an invite to spring training is Slade Heathcott. Like Bailey, the Yankees re-signed him to a minor league contract over the offseason. Heathcott has struggled with knee injuries for several seasons now, but in a phone interview with Chad Jennings, assistant general manager Billy Eppler sounded optimistic about his progress. "His progressions are moving forward really positively. The last checkup we had, he's able to do full baseball activities." Eppler also added that there were some questions remaining about how frequently Heathcott could play and for what length of time. Maybe this will be the year that he stays healthy and shows that he still has the potential that he showed previously.

Last season will always be remembered as the year that the rotation was obliterated by injuries, but everyone seems to be on track at the moment. CC Sabathia has had nothing but good things to say about how his knee is feeling. Ivan Nova's Tommy John rehab is progressing as it should be. Although Masahiro Tanaka did get in a couple of starts at the end of the season, it was also good to hear him recently confirm that his elbow is feeling fine. He's even expected to show up early to spring training.

As for the other Yankees who ended the season injured, Carlos Beltran had surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow and he spoke to YES Network a few weeks ago and said that the range of motion in his elbow is back. Mark Teixeira spent the entire season working through wrist pain, before eventually getting a third cortisone shot in September. There haven't been any recent updates on how his offseason has progressed, but no news might be good news, since it was last year that he frequently spoke out about how his wrist would never been the same, and so on. Tex did say that he blamed some of his poor 2014 season on a lack of upper-body strength because the wrist injury prevented him from his regular weight lifting routine, so his offseason plan was to return to that. Finally, it was announced that Brett Gardner underwent "core surgery" in October (he was having issues with an abdominal strain near the end of the season), and while there haven't been any recent updates, it was said to be a minor procedure and he should be ready to go when spring training starts.