Yankees receive good news from MRI on Justin Wilson’s shoulder

New lefty reliever Justin Wilson gave the Yankees a bit of an injury scare on Monday when he was forced to depart from a nightmare outing against the Phillies with tightness in his shoulder. As a precaution, the team sent him to undergo an MRI on Tuesday, and during Wednesday’s matinee against the Blue Jays, skipper Aaron Boone revealed the results in an interview on YES Network.

Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like Wilson will need surgery. Since he just signed with the team last month, they had a very recent MRI to compare his most recent scan to, and they determined that there was “nothing actionable.” Wilson will receive standard shoulder treatments before beginning to throw again in a few days. The team also released a statement shortly after Boone’s interview, offering essentially the same details:

Given that the Yankees are supposed to open up the season next Thursday though, I’m not sure if that timeline bodes well for Wilson being ready to pitch on Opening Day if needed. (In the postgame, Boone would only say that he would be a “TBD.”) They could roster him and just avoid using him for the first few games, but the safer play might be to place him on the injured list to start the season and give his spot to someone who can actually pitch.

Deivi García, Nick Nelson, Lucas Luetge, Michael King, and Tyler Lyons are just a few of the names already competing for the final bullpen spots. Some of them will already be rostered before Wilson’s spot is considered, but the injury might create another opening. It’s great that it doesn’t seem as though Wilson’s shoulder ailment is serious, but there’s also no reason that the Yankees need to rush him back.