Yankees place Giancarlo Stanton on IL with quad strain

The Yankees announced this afternoon that they had placed Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list, retroactive to May 14, with a left quad strain. In a corresponding move, they recalled right-hander Albert Abreu from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This follows a frustrating pattern for this organization, one in which a star player mysteriously gets removed from the lineup with a previously unannounced ailment, and hovers in purgatory for some time before finally hitting the injured list. It’s at least some solace that the Yankees didn’t let Stanton linger too long, ultimately shelving him after playing through just the weekend series in Baltimore down a roster spot.

This is a tough break for Stanton and the team, what with Stanton’s excellent performance this season and his inability to stay on the field the past few years. Stanton’s cooled off a bit since his red-hot hitting streak, but his 149 OPS+ on the year makes obvious how valuable he can be when healthy. That his 131 at-bat total nearly matches his total from the previous two years combined makes just as obvious how absent that bat his been from the Yankee starting nine.

For now, the Yankees will fill Stanton’s spot with Abreu. The young righty made a couple appearances earlier in the year and looked, well, like Albert Abreu, flashing a few great pitches and little clue as to where they were going. Abreu’s promotion brings the Yankees up to 14 pitchers on the active roster for the time being.

Hopefully, Stanton can return not long after his minimum 10 days is up, but it wouldn’t be wise to hold one’s breath. Given Stanton’s recent injury troubles, it’d be unsurprising to see the club play it safe with the slugger until they are 100 percent sure he’s once again ready to contribute.