Around the Empire: Yankees news - 5/19/21

NJ.com | Randy Miller: Gleyber Torres was the only player to get caught up in the Yankees’ COVID-19 situation last week, and has missed every game since May 11th. Good news though, as he has been cleared and could rejoin the lineup as early as tonight. In other better Yankees’ injury developments, doctors say the elbow soreness Zack Britton has been dealing with while rehabbing an offseason surgery isn’t a big deal and he can resume throwing.

CNBC | Cory Stieg: Speaking of the Yankees’ COVID-19 situation, they made some non-sports news last week when several players, coaches, and members of staff tested positive despite having been vaccinated. Here is an explanation of how exactly that happened and why it seemed to happen in a cluster within the Yankees.

New York Daily News | Anthony McCarron: Ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Rangers, the Yankees activated Rougned Odor from the 10-day IL and put him back in the lineup. Odor had been out since May 5th after spraining his knee during a play at the plate against the Astros.

CBS Sports | Katherine Acquavella: In case you missed it, yesterday ESPN announced that they were giving Derek Jeter the “Last Dance” treatment with a multi-part documentary series that will be released in 2022.

MLB.com | Sam Dykstra: Ahead of the new minor league season, MLB announced rule changes that were going to be tested in MILB games in 2021. Some of the focus of the changes were about increasing action on the basepaths, and so far, it seems like it’s worked. Both stolen bases and stolen base attempts are up fairly dramatically a few weeks into the new season.