The Yankees will place right-hander Michael Pineda on the disabled list with a Grade 1 right forearm strain, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman (Twitter link). The timetable for his return remains unclear, though Sherman says the Yankees do expect Pineda to pitch again in 2015. The injury is the same as the one suffered by Andrew Miller earlier this year, Sherman adds. Miller missed about a month with his forearm strain, though the recovery process for a reliever and for a starting pitcher will probably vary, and Pineda may need more time to return to his previous per-start workload after sitting out.
An injury to Pineda further taxes a Yankees rotation that already contained some question marks. CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Ivan Nova and Nathan Eovaldi should continue to hold down spots, and the team has used right-hander Bryan Mitchell in the rotation this season as well. There figures to be a good deal of speculation surrounding top prospect Luis Severino as well, though despite a 2.45 ERA this season, he’s already just 14 innings shy of his career-high 113 1/3. Certainly he’ll be expected to exceed that number in 2015 — the question is just to what extent he’ll be able to surpass that mark.
The Yankees have already been linked to pitching upgrades in recent days, though top-of-the-market names such as Cole Hamels and David Price have come off the board. Remaining names range from expensive assets such as James Shields (three years, $64MM following this season) or short-term rentals such as Mike Leake, who is a free agent at season’s end. The Padres have some targets that fall in between those two extremes (Tyson Ross, Andrew Cashner), and as Sherman speculates on Twitter, a run at Craig Kimbrel would allow New York to shift Adam Warren back into the rotation and create a dominant late-inning trio.
All of that is sheer speculation, of course, and it remains possible that the Pineda injury won’t do much to alter the Yankees’ course over the coming 24-plus hours. But it’s easy to imagine a scenario where the loss of Pineda, even for a brief time, combined with Toronto’s acquisitions of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, will hasten GM Brian Cashman’s efforts to upgrade his roster via the trade market.
This timing for this could not be any worse.
Not really. August 1 would probably be worse, because then what do you do?
There is an even worse date than that, you could still have a waiver trade on August 1. No one would be claiming Shields more than likely. However, on September 1 there are no more playoff-eligible trades that can happen.
they still have 24 hours, I disagree and say the timing couldn’t be better as they can add an insurance policy prior to tomorrow
They can and will fill this with internal options. No need to make a panic trade.
Luckily we still have ACEovaldi down the stretch.
Price check on David…is it too late to steal him away from the Jays in transit? lol
Worst timing ever. I see them looking into Ross and Cashner now too
Gallardo for Lindgren.
They should just move Warren back to the rotation, and, ideally, swing a trade for Kimbrel (or Benoit) and strengthen the bullpen even more. Severino is hitting an innings limit. Call him up and put him in the pen. Save his arm.
It happens. It could have happened three days from now as well. They should take care not to over-react. We are talking about maybe six starts.
Excellent, excellent
Too much pine tar. 😉
I wish the Yankees would flex some financial muscle!! They have more money than the Dodgers but act like they are a mid market team.. I don’t understand how the Dodgers can basically give the Braves $42 million for Wood and the Yankees are saying that they want to get under the luxury tax? Why? Flex some muscle and bring in Shields.. He won’t cost any of Cashman’s prized prospects and will only require picking up the contract.. Even if they get Shields they will still be sitting close to $70 million less on their payroll than the Dodgers.. Earth to Cashman.. If you don’t want to give up your best prospects then you have to spend money!! Dumpster dive for one starter and then flex some financial muscle and grab a TOR arm!!