A followup MRI on the ailing right shoulder of Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar revealed little to no changes in his shoulder from the April MRI that initially revealed a small labrum tear, manager Aaron Boone told reporters Tuesday afternoon (Twitter links via James Wagner of the New York Times and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Andujar, according to Boone, has been encouraged to discuss the situation with his family and will spend the next day or so mulling his options. Season-ending surgery is still on the table, it seems.
The update from Boone comes just a day after Andujar was placed back on the 10-day injured list following a brief return to the active roster. Andujar missed the entire month of April and a few games early in May before returning on May 4 to go 3-for-34 (all singles) with one walk and nine strikeouts. While both Andujar and the team had hoped that the small nature of the tear would allow him to play through the injury, that poor showing has cast further doubt on his ability to do so.
In place of Andujar, Gio Urshela seems likely to continue logging regular work at the hot corner. He’s acquitted himself nicely at the plate through 101 plate appearances thus far (.341/.396/.505), but the 27-year-old has never shown much offensive ability in the big leagues and is currently sporting a .392 average on balls in play that looks ripe for regression.
The outlook on another injured slugger, Giancarlo Stanton, is perhaps more optimistic but also quite vague (Twitter links via Wagner and Hoch). The initial biceps strain that landed Stanton on the injured list back on April 1 has healed, but Boone suggested that Stanton’s left shoulder is still bothering him. Stanton received a cortisone injection in that problematic shoulder a couple of weeks ago and is continuing to run and take at-bats in a simulated setting, but he is not on a rehab assignment just yet. Boone was extremely nebulous in his description of the injury but stated that there’s no tear in Stanton’s shoulder; the Yankees have since announced that Stanton is dealing with a left shoulder strain.
New York’s outlook in the outfield is a bit steadier with Aaron Hicks back on the active roster and set for his season debut. Hicks will of course be in line for regular center field duties, with Brett Gardner, Clint Frazier and hot-hitting Cameron Maybin cycling through the outfield corners and perhaps spending some time at DH here and there. At present, though, it’s not clear when Stanton or fellow injured slugger Aaron Judge will be able to step back into the fray.
A second straight rain delay will give all of those injured Yankees some time to mend, as tonight’s game against the Orioles has already been postponed. New York and Baltimore will play a doubleheader tomorrow to make up for yesterday’s rain-out, and tonight’s game will be made up as part of an August doubleheader.
It looks like the Yankees want Andujar to have the surgery but he doesn’t want it.
It looks like the Tanaka Project version 2.0 of sit back and do nothing didn’t work this time.
I don’t blame him for trying it. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, he’s only set himself back a month or so.
Surgery should always be a last resort
The doctors advised Tanaka against the surgery and hes been spectacular
It’s a good thing the second stringers can shoulder the burden.
The season is barely 40 games old. Calm down about how great these retreads are.
They’ll be singing a different tune when these averages drop back to where they belong. These are .240 hitters hitting over .300… expect a couple 0 fer week and a halfs pretty soon. Or, maybe Maybin and Urshela found some of Irod’s vitamins.
This is what we call the gambler’s fallacy. Just because you’ve lost a lot of scratch off tickets already, that doesn’t increase your chance of winning future ones. Conversely, a .240 true talent hitter currently batting .300 should be expected to bat .240 moving forward, not less than .240 such that his season batting line will reduce to .240
Does that make sense? It’s still a concern, just not to the extent you’re making it out to be.
And boy does that pass me off because I’m a Red Sox fan lol
It’s a pun, not a sophisticated analysis.
Yeah that’s 25% of the season….
Boone was extremely nebulous in his description of the injury. Good lord, why even bother to cover this team? It’s pointless. Just say, “He’s got a boo-boo and it hurts.” Holy cow.
Strained his shoulder depositing his paycheck
Ummm, he’s making league minimum or close to.
He’s talking about Stanton.
After reading all the comments I can completely understand why they close comments about he Urias story. Its about a baseball player involved in something. By about the 50th comment it’s turned into politics, race ,bad parenting ,bad culture , crooked cops and name calling. No wonder its closed
Having Boone be the spokesman on behalf of the injured Yankees is totally a waste. Rather have Cashman or the trainer voice their opinion since it lends itself to more credibility. I hope that the organization will delve into this abnormal situation after the season and make changes to try and reduce this epidemic for upcoming seasons.
Folks, your Yankees are killing my fantasy team!
Amazing how the Yankees have positioned themselves for the 2nd half. Judge, Stanton and Didi will make this lineup 1-9 baseball’s best.
The Evil Empire were well stocked up, it’s no wonder they’ve survived. The Redsox have almost 1/2 their rotation on the IL, but you don’t see their fans whining. The Redsox had a horrible schedule the first month with hardly any days off n a rotation crippled, but you never hear an excuse from the Redsox, they just take it on the chin.
I’m very confused about the Red Sox horrible schedule to start the season? Every east coast team has a trip out west but the Red Sox had the benefit of playing their last spring training game out there and having and extra couple days to adjust to the time difference. Plus the travel thing is completely negated by the fact that their first 2 opponents had literally traveled to Japan. Seattle and the As are hardly fantastic opponents and they got to come home after the road trip to play the orioles and blue jays. In terms of off days, every team is going to play the 162 games over the course of the season so a day you don’t have off in April (when you shouldn’t need the rest since you just had all winter to rest) is a day you get off later in the season when you actually have the wear and tear. Just because the Red Sox were a complete embarrassment to start the season doesn’t mean it’s the schedules fault. They played bad baseball.
Also have you heard Red Sox fans? They’ve been doing nothing but complaining. And Sox fans really can’t say anything about Eovaldi or Pedroia being hurt… that should have been expected. It would be like a Yankee fan being surprised Tulowitzki or bird got hurt.
Kinda like you’re whining now? The injured starters weren’t your problem. The ones that were projected to be in your rotation were the problem. Or perhaps you’ve already forgotten how awful Sale, Eovaldi, Porcello and Rodriguez started their seasons?
That’s if they make it back… And come back 100 percent. I don’t like the results from the training staff… Goes back the past couple years… This season just happened to be the season the shtf…