Yankees Injury Update: Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks, CC Sabathia

Yankees GM Brian Cashman chatted with the media earlier today, and provided some injury updates. Unfortunately, none of them really line up with what we were hoping to hear.

First, and most importantly, the team doesn’t expect Luis Severino to be ready to pitch in the big leagues until May. He won’t even start playing catch again until sometime next week. Obviously they need to give him adequate time to heal, and he hadn’t even made a spring training start prior to the injury. It is less than ideal for the Yankees to go without their ace for the first five weeks of the season.

In other pitching news, CC Sabathia should return to the rotation by mid-April, hopefully. Now is the time for Domingo German, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Luis Cessa to step up. They probably can’t pitch any worse than they did filling in for Jordan Montgomery and Sonny Gray last year, right?

More bad news: Aaron Hicks will probably have to begin the season on the injured list. While his back may be good to go on Opening Day, he will likely need additional at-bats before he is game-ready. Jacoby Ellsbury, come on down (just kidding). It sounds like this could be a scenario where the Yankees carry both of their first basemen, though:

Hopefully these three don’t experience any setbacks, and these timelines are the worst-case scenarios.