clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Yankees lineup vs. Angels - Jose Campos undergoes Tommy John surgery; Nik Turley released

By Jason Cohen
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Ok, let's try this again. Yesterday clearly never happened, so Vidal Nuno will go out there and get the Yankees a win. Right? Right.

Much of the lineup is similar to what we've seen over the last few days. Jacoby Ellsbury, Derek Jeter, and Carlos Beltran (now the DH) are at the top of the lineup. Alfonso Soriano is in right field and batting cleanup while Mark Teixeira is hitting sixth. Brett Gardner is in left and Brian Roberts is somehow still in the lineup. Kelly Johnson is at third base with Yangervis Solarte on the bench, because Roberts clearly needs to play. John Ryan Murphy is behind the plate, giving Brian McCann the day off since he just played last night.

Yesterday Jose Campos was officially placed on the disabled list with inflammation in his elbow. Today it turns out he actually underwent Tommy John surgery on Friday. That's quite an escalation. While he was assigned to High-A Tampa to begin the season, the right-hander never pitched in any minor league games. The oft-injured piece from the Michael Pineda-Jesus Montero trade has been dealing with elbow issues for a few years now. The Yankees had to shut him down in 2012 when he experienced elbow problems. In 2013, he remained healthy, but was kept to a limited pitch count that never seemed to allow him to go more than three or four innings per start.

This was supposed to be the year he would finally be allowed to just go out and pitch. Now that his season is over before it even started, Campos, the No. 20 prospect in the organization according to MLB.com, won't be ready to pitch again for another 12 months. That's a lot of development time he's lost due to injuries already, so he'll likely be coming off top prospect lists from here.

Chris Leroux has been spotted in the Yankees clubhouse, so it's likely that he has been brought up after Bruce Billings ended up pitching four innings in relief of an ineffective Hiroki Kuroda. No official move has been announced, but it's very likely that Billings has been designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster. You might think placing Campos on the 60-day DL would be the more likely move, but the Yankees can't do that because it would start his service clock. That's why they had to keep Manny Banuelos on the 40-man roster all through last season, despite all those injuries.

UPDATE:

The Yankees have optioned Shane Greene back down to Triple-A and have unconditionally released Nik Turley in order to make room for Leroux on the 40 and 25-man rosters. Turley has yet to pitch this season after injury his pitching arm just before spring training. It's unknown if they'll try to re-sign him like they did last season with David Adams or he'll go elsewhere.

More From Pinstripe Alley