Yankees Place Luke Voit On IL

The Yankees announced today that they have placed first baseman Luke Voit on the 10-day injured list. He’ said to be dealing with a sports hernia.

Also hitting the IL is righty David Hale, who is said to be dealing with a lumbar spine strain. To take their roster spots, the club has recalled righty Jonathan Holder and infielder Breyvic Valera.

Core muscle issues of the sort Voit is dealing with can be quite problematic. Voit’s timeline isn’t yet clear, but a surgical procedure — which would come with a six-week rehab timeline — is on the table, according to skipper Aaron Boone. (Via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, on Twitter.)

Whether or not the club will consider a replacement piece isn’t clear. Internal options at first base include Edwin Encarnacion and Mike Ford. Encarnacion played first earlier this year in Seattle and has seen eight games there in New York, but has mostly served as a DH with the Yanks. It’s at least conceivable that uncertainty surrounding Voit could impact the Yanks’ willingness to move Clint Frazier, who’d be a candidate to serve as a DH and part-time outfielder if Encarnacion is deployed at first.

On the pitching side, losing Hale mostly just dents the depth. But the Yanks are also dealing with some rotation uncertainty. CC Sabathia is expected to be sidelined for a few weeks after a “lubrication shot” in his balky knee, James Wagner of the New York Times tweets. The club obviously has room to improve in the pitching department quite apart from those losses, but they do help add impetus to the task.