Around the Empire: Yankees news - 9/19/21

New York Post | Greg Joyce: Joey Gallo had a cold start to his Yankee tenure, but was warming up in September with five home runs in the month. The club was starting to see a real return on the trade they made ... and he was yanked from the middle of Saturday’s game with Cleveland, battling neck tightness. The outfielder underwent tests while the game was in play, and Yankee skipper Aaron Boone expressed confidence he would be back in the lineup on Sunday.

New York Daily News | Mike Lupica: The Yankees have largely been perceived over the last five years or so as a team with a boatload of talent that hasn’t been able to get over the hurdle of winning the World Series. Part of that frustration stems from the decision of owner Hal Steinbrenner to adhere to the CBT threshold penalties — for all the Yankee deadline deals, the club didn’t exceed the $210 million limit. Hal’s determination to reset the tax every other year has had unquestionable impacts on the day-to-day roster decisions of the club.

FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: The Yankees are in for the fight of their season in the AL Wild Card race. It’s certainly not where they saw themselves in March, but were it not for the collapse of the Red Sox in the second half, they likely wouldn’t have a chance at all.

Lastly, the Yankees made a small roster move after the disastrous matinee yesterday, demoting the starter of that game, Luis Gil, to Triple-A Scranton:

Gil’s second go-around in the bigs didn’t go as well as the first. In 13.2 innings across 3 starts, he allowed 10 earned runs on 11 hits and an ugly 12 walks. The stretch of 20 games in 20 days ends before what would’ve been Gil’s next turn in the rotation, so it seems as though the Yankees will skip him and use his roster spot to either add to their bullpen or bench.