New York Post | George A. King III: The Yankees finally gave some good news on the injury front yesterday. Or more accurately, they gave one piece of non-bad news. When Gary Sanchez went back on the disabled list in July, the estimated timetable for his return was the last week of August or first week of September. Yesterday, Aaron Boone confirmed that timetable was still...on the table. It’s not exactly exciting, but considering it’s mid-August, I’ll take any optimism on Sanchez’s return.
MLB.com | Mandy Bell: It wasn’t all positive on the injury front yesterday, though. In a surprising move, the Yankees announced CC Sabathia was going on the disabled list with right knee inflammation. They made a few moves yesterday as George Kontos was called up to take Sabathia’s spot and then Luke Voit was optioned and Ronald Torreyes, who hadn’t been with the team since May, was called up. Boone also added that while Aaron Judge has yet to swing a bat, it could happen “any day now.” Back to Sabathia for a second though:
Brian Cashman on @CC_Sabathia needing a “time-out” https://t.co/08BA3ifKiA pic.twitter.com/JZzRJxSJ6Y
— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) August 13, 2018
I know a lot of folks will look at this as a bad thing and that Sabathia is being “soft” or “selfish” or whatever else, but it’s anything but that. I absolutely love Sabathia approaching the Yankees and encourage more players to do the same. If players aren’t feeling 100%, they can’t fear consequences and stay quiet. They have to speak up. Playing through the pain and injury and whatever only hurts the team.
Anyway, the Yankees wasted no time announcing who they plan on taking Sabathia’s turn in the rotation.
Yankees will go Happ, Cessa, Tanaka vs #Rays
— Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) August 14, 2018
I guess rolling the dice with Luis Cessa makes sense if they truly believe Sabathia will only miss one start. If it turns out he needs more time, they can always reevaluate their other options. At least Cessa’s been okay in his three starts so far this year.
MLB.com | Joe Trezza: Luis Severino’s second-half struggles continued yesterday. What was billed as an exciting match-up between two aces was anything but that as Severino could not keep up with his Mets counterpart. The Yankees need to do something about about Severino fast, even if it means skipping him a start or two. The timing would be awful considering Sabathia going on the disabled list, but running Sevy out there right now is actively hurting the team. As of right now, the Yankees won’t skip him:
Boone said Yankees as of now not planning to skip Severino
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) August 14, 2018
Or maybe it all just circles back to Gary Sanchez getting healthy:
(Luis Severino needs Gary Sanchez behind the plate.)
— Mike Axisa (@mikeaxisa) August 14, 2018
I’m willing to support this train of thought, as hypocritical as it may be of me.