Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Dellin Betances

Dellin Betances Suffers Partial Achilles Tear

By | at

TODAY: After Betances visited another doctor for a second opinion, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch and other reporters that surgery wasn’t recommended.  Betances will wear a walking boot for the next four weeks.

TUESDAY: Yankees reliever Dellin Betances has suffered a partial tear of his left Achilles’ tendon, Jack Curry of the YES Network was among those to report. Betances incurred the injury Sunday in Toronto, per the New York Times’ James Wagner, who adds that surgery’s currently under consideration. The right-hander will go for a second opinion, according to Wagner.

This figures to conclude an injury-ruined season for Betances, a four-time All-Star setup man whose sole 2019 outing came Sunday, when he struck out both batters he faced. Betances missed the first five-plus months of the season as a result of shoulder and lat problems. The soon-to-be 32-year-old’s newest injury could bring to an end a fruitful Yankees tenure for Betances, who’s set to become a free agent after the season. Regardless, it’s safe to say the significant health issues that have haunted Betances this year will tamp down his earning power if he does reach the open market in a couple months.

No matter what the future holds for Betances, this is yet another monumental injury for a New York club that has dealt with one after another all season. While the Yankees have barely received any contributions from the likes of Betances, ace Luis Severino (who made his 2019 debut Tuesday) and outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, and have battled plenty of other injuries, they nonetheless own the majors’ best record at 99-53. The club’s on the cusp of its first division championship since 2012, and even though it’s shorthanded, it’s undoubtedly on a small list of the game’s World Series favorites with the postseason around the corner.

It stands to reason the Yankees would boast an even better record with a healthy version of Betances, who was in an elite class of relievers from 2014-18. The normally durable Betances made no fewer than 66 appearances in any of those five seasons, during which he combined for a league-high 373 1/3 innings of 2.22 ERA/2.26 FIP pitching with 14.63 K/9 against 3.91 BB/9. New York’s relief corps has done well to weather the storm without its premier pre-ninth inning arm this season, evidenced by its overall 4.11 ERA/4.18 FIP, though it’s clearly less formidable without the towering Betances looming.

Relievers Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino and Tommy Kahnle have helped fill Betances’ void in front of closer Aroldis Chapman this season. They’ll obviously have to continue their standout work into the fall if the Yankees are going to claim their first championship since 2009.

Yankees Activate Giancarlo Stanton

By | at

Giancarlo Stanton has officially been activated from the 60-day injured list, the Yankees announced Wednesday. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, the Yankees placed Dellin Betances on the 60-day IL. Betances suffered a partial tear of his Achilles tendon in his first appearance of the 2019 season.

Stanton’s return to the lineup — he’s batting fifth and playing left field tonight — is a more-than-welcome sight for the injury-plagued Yankees. However, Stanton won’t play a full game tonight and will seemingly be eased back into the mix. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters that the slugger will play only four to five innings to get some at-bats under his belt (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Stanton could play a full game as a DH on Thursday, though.

While Stanton’s first year in the Bronx didn’t quite live up to the MVP standard he set in 2017, he nevertheless proved to be a force in the middle of a potent Yankees lineup. In 705 plate appearances (158 games) last season, Stanton hit .266/.343/.509 with 38 home runs, 34 doubles and a triple. He’s been limited to just nine games in 2019 thanks to a biceps strain and a knee strain, but he’ll now have a couple of weeks to ramp back up to game speed as the Yankees prepare for the American League Division Series. New York has lost Mike Tauchman for the season and isn’t likely to get Aaron Hicks back, either, so Stanton will be in line for regular work in left field with Brett Gardner lining up in center and Aaron Judge manning right field.

Edwin Encarnacion Expects To Return Before End Of Regular Season

By | at

Alarm bells were raised when Yankees slugger Edwin Encarnacion turned up with an oblique strain recently, as a significant version of that injury could easily spell a lengthy absence. But the progress has been so promising that the veteran says he believes he’ll return to the field of play in the next two weeks, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch covers on Twitter.

Encarnacion, 36, says that he’s “feeling better every day.” So long as he continues to ramp up, he ought to have a chance to pick up some plate appearances before the club wraps up play on the 29th. It doesn’t matter much to the Yanks whether they have Encarnacion’s bat in the lineup down the stretch, but the club will certainly hope to have him at full speed in the postseason.

The Yanks still have quite a few interesting potential roster questions to resolve before playoff action gets underway. Giancarlo Stanton joins Encarnacion as a rehabbing righty power bat, with a bevy of other possibilities for roster spots. And the team has a variety of hurlers — Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, Jordan Montgomery — trying to show they’re ready to roll, with other pitchers waiting in the wings.

One of those other key players, Betances, just had his first outing. As Hoch tweets, the power righty was not only happy with the outing — he struck out the two batters he faced — but how he feels the day after. Montgomery’s own season debut wasn’t quite so promising, as he gave up three earned in two innings. Both pitchers worked well below their previously established levels of fastball velocity. Severino will take the ball in the majors tomorrow for the first time this year.

Yankees Designate Ryan Dull; Activate Betances, Montgomery

By | at

The Yankees announced they have designated right-handed reliever Ryan Dull for assignment. That, coupled with the transfer of Jonathan Holder to the 60-day injured list, clears roster space for the previously-reported activations of Dellin Betances and Jordan Mongtomery from the IL.

Betances is the most notable name in today’s series of transactions. The fireballer has missed the entire season to date with a shoulder injury. Notably, he tells Erik Boland of Newsday (via Twitter) that he’s still not up to full strength, although he expressed optimism he’ll be 100% by the end of the regular season. Betances’ progress will be one of the stretch run’s biggest health situations to monitor, as the hulking righty will be elligible for free agency at season’s end, which both player and team surely hope won’t come until after a lengthy postseason run for the soon-to-be AL East champs.

It has been an even longer absence for Montgomery, who hasn’t toed an MLB mound since undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. As a rookie in 2017, Montgomery started 29 games and pitched to a better-than-average 3.88 ERA with solid peripherals. It’ll be interesting to see how the Bombers build him up down the stretch and what role, if any, he’ll play in the postseason.

Those returns to health come at the expense of Dull, a 29 year-old righty. He was blasted in three games as a Yankee, continuing a disappointing season. Dull has never followed up on a 2016 season in which he pitched to a 2.42 ERA in 74.1 innings in Oakland. He does come with one more option year and throws the same 91 MPH fastball he had in his breakthrough effort in the Bay Area, so Dull should still hold some appeal as a depth piece this offseason.

Holder was initially shelved in August with right shoulder inflammation. A longshot to make the Yankees’ postseason roster even when healthy, this almost certainly concludes a trying season for the 26 year-old, who pitched to a 6.31 ERA despite serviceable strikeout (25.4%) and walk (6.1%) rates.

Yankees To Activate Dellin Betances

By | at

Dellin Betances is on his way to Toronto. The Yankees plan to activate the right-hander tomorrow, per James Wagner of the New York Times (via Twitter), and he should be available out of the pen for the series finale versus the Blue Jays.

Betances was a key piece of the Yankees’ bullpen from 2014 to 2018, appearing in no less than 66 games in each of the five seasons prior to 2019. He was diagnosed with a bone spur in his shoulder way back in April, an injury that at the time was expected to keep him out until June.

If Betances finds his stride in relative short order, he represents a significant weapon for Aaron Boone’s bullpen. The 31-year-old right-hander clocked 11.6 fWAR while appearing in 357 games in his Yankee career. Since establishing himself as a mainstay in 2014, Betances has a 2.22 ERA/2.26 FIP with 14.6 K/9 versus 3.9 BB/9.

In his latest rehab outing, Betances was hitting 92-94 mph on the gun, per Wagner. The Yankees hope to get him back up to speed over the final two weeks of the season.

Severino, Stanton Expected To Join Yankees Next Week

By | at

10:40am: Not only are Severino and Stanton on the verge of a return, it seems that left-hander Jordan Montgomery and righty Dellin Betances could be back in the same general timeframe. Montgomery could start things off in a bullpen game for the Yankees in Toronto on Sunday (Twitter link via Newsday’s Erik Boland), while Hoch tweets that Betances will pitch once more for Trenton tomorrow and could be added to the Major League roster after that outing.

10:22am: After missing nearly the entire season due to shoulder and lat injuries, Yankees ace Luis Severino is expected to return from the injured list and start Tuesday’s game against the Angels at Yankee Stadium, manager Aaron Boone revealed to reporters this morning (Twitter links via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). That on its own is good news, but Boone added that Giancarlo Stanton could rejoin the roster at the start of that homestand as well, meaning he could be in the lineup Tuesday as well.

A healthy Severino would be a welcome reprieve for a beleaguered Yankees rotation that has stumbled throughout the second half of the season. Since the All-Star break, Yankees starters have posted a collective 5.25 ERA and averaged fewer than five innings per outing. Those shortcomings have done nothing to endanger New York’s overwhelming lead in the American League East, but such difficulties among their starting staff are no doubt a concern with the postseason looming. Adding a healthy Severino into the fray could be a substantial boost not only for the final two weeks of the regular season but also to the team’s outlook in the American League Division Series.

The Yankees have been relying primarily on the quintet of Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton, Domingo German, J.A. Happ and CC Sabathia to make their starts, but Paxton (3.90) and German (4.90) are the only members of the bunch with a sub-5.00 ERA since the All-Star break. Happ has rattled off a string of solid starts and could be rounding into form late in the year, but the Yankees’ rotation has generally been a weak point. A strong bullpen and overwhelming offensive attack have paved their road to success.

As for Stanton, it’s clear that scoring runs hasn’t been an issue for the Yankees this season. Staying healthy, however, has. Stanton is a major part of that, but he could rejoin the lineup at an opportune time. The Yankees just lost out-of-the-blue breakout outfielder Mike Tauchman for the rest of the season, and Aaron Hicks could be down for the rest of the year as well. Luke Voit, meanwhile, hasn’t hit much since returning from the injured list.

Stanton has only managed to appear in nine games for the Yankees this year, first going down with a biceps strain that sidelined him for two months and then spraining his knee in just his sixth game back from that first injury. His injury-shortened campaign has caused some Yankees fans to sour on him, but Stanton was plenty dangerous in his Yankees debut in 2018, hitting .266/.343/.509 with 38 big flies and 34 doubles in 158 games (705 plate appearances). Adding him back into the late-season and playoff picture would be bad news for whichever postseason opponent lines up against the Yanks.

Severino, Betances Closing In On Returns

By | at

Luis Severino and Dellin Betances each pitched on rehab Friday night with the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate in Trenton. According to manager Aaron Boone, Severino is the further along of the two hurlers. In fact, Boone tells Dan Martin of the New York Post, Severino’s next appearance might be on a major-league mound.

“Overall, it was pretty successful,” Boone told Martin of Severino’s rehab outing. “We’ll talk about whether one more is beneficial or [if he will] come with us.” The Yankees, tied with the Astros for the AL’s best record, are amidst a ten-game road trip.

Interestingly, it’s possible Severino returns as more or less a traditional starting pitcher. While we’ve seen a few teams bring back injured arms to work short stints in September, typically as openers, the Yankees seem determined to build their injured ace back up. “I think there’s a chance with where the calendar is, he could get built up pretty high,” Boone said of Severino, although he quickly cautioned that “we could always throttle him back and I could see him in a variety of roles for us.”

For his part, Severino, who has missed the entire season with lat and shoulder trouble, seems optimistic about his chances of building up the requisite arm strength to work deep into games by the time the postseason comes around. He only threw 50 pitches Friday for Trenton but told local reporters he believed he could ramp up to 90-100 pitches in a start by season’s end, Martin adds. While the Yankees have marvelously weathered myriad injuries this season, the starting rotation has proven to be something of a weak spot. Yankees’ starters rank 14th leaguewide in park-adjusted ERA, while the other top five teams in the AL standings all rank among the top seven in rotation run prevention.

In the wake of C.C. Sabathia’s most recent IL placement, the Yankees turned to a bullpen game to fill out the fifth slot in their rotation, so there seems to be an ideal opportunity for building up Severino’s workload at the MLB level. Notably, pitching coach Larry Rothschild raved to Martin about Severino’s shape, praising his fastball velocity and slider spin. Taking Rothschild at his word, it seems plausible the 25 year-old could be in position to handle major league hitters quite shortly.

The Bombers have had an easier time replacing Betances thanks to a never-ending shuttle of quality relief arms. Like Severino, the big righty hasn’t pitched in the majors this season, with a shoulder impingement explaining his absence. Boone told Martin the Yankees expect Betances will need some more minor-league time to build up strength, but his season debut also seems to be in the near future, Martin adds. It’ll be important for the 31 year-old to show his trademark power stuff when he does return, as Betances is scheduled to hit free agency for the first time this offseason.

Yankees Health Updates: Severino, Betances, Andujar, Urshela, Stanton

By | at

Rumor has it that the Yankees have dealt with a few bites of the injury bug this year. Here’s the latest on the health front …

  • It’ll be a big day for the Yanks on Friday. Two key righties — Luis Severino and Dellin Betances — will each take the ball for the club’s Trenton affiliate. Neither has pitched in the big leagues yet this year, but both could be key late-season additions for the AL East champions-to-be. It’s still anyone’s guess what these hurlers will be able to contribute.
  • Third baseman Miguel Andujar has been undergoing physical therapy since his season-ending shoulder surgery back in May and will begin participating in full baseball activities next week (Twitter link via Laura Albanese of the New York Daily News). Andujar expects to be at 100 percent come Spring Training next season. The talented 24-year-old figures to play a major role in the club’s near-future plans, though he’ll be returning to a different situation than the one he left.
  • Of more immediate concern at the hot corner is Gio Urshela, who has been out with a groin injury. He’s likely to jump right back into the lineup after the ten-day minimum, skipper Aaron Boone indicated to reporters including James Wagner of the New York Times (Twitter link). The 27-year-old Urshela has outdone Andujar, slashing .331/.370/.555 with 18 long balls in 414 plate appearances.
  • And then there’s long-lost slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who’s still nursing a knee injury. While the 29-year-old’s anticipated output has improbably been replaced by a rotating cast of unlikely heroes, it’d still be nice to get him back for the postseason. Stanton has finally picked up some “momentum,” per Boone (via Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, on Twitter). The outfielder/DH is slated to face live pitching at the club’s Florida facility. His timeline remains unclear, but it seems there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

Health Notes: Lopez, Gott, Indians, McKay, Yankees

By | at

Marlins righty Pablo Lopez returned today from the 10-day injured list. The 23-year-old had been out since June with shoulder problems, so it’s good to see he was able to get back up to speed before the end of the season. Lopez wasn’t at his best, allowing four earned in five innings, but averaged 94.1 mph with his fastball.

Here are some more health notes from around the game …

  • The Giants are sending reliever Trevor Gott in for a closer look after he experienced tightness in his right forearm tonight, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to cover on Twitter. That’s not the news anyone wanted at the end of an enormously successful season for the young reliever, who has been among the nicest surprises in San Francisco. At this point, there’s nothing to be done but wait and hope that there isn’t a significant underlying problem.
  • There are a bevy of updates on the health front for the Indians, as MLB.com’s Mandy Bell covers on Twitter. In particular, the club has a big slate of rehabbing hurlers appearing over the next few days. Danny Salazar threw a frame today at Double-A without incident. Jefry Rodriguez is slated to appear with the club’s top affiliate tomorrow, with fellow starter Carlos Carrasco and reliever Dan Otero scheduled to throw in game action on Wednesday. Meanwhile, long-absent outfielder Bradley Zimmer has reached the Triple-A level and seems likely to be an option in the majors again soon.
  • Prized young Rays hurler Brendan McKay, optioned down after a rough recent start, has hit the injured list at Triple-A, as MLB.com’s Juan Toribio was among those to tweet. He’s said to be dealing with shoulder fatigue, which sounds worrisome but doesn’t appear to be cause for any concern. The expectation is that he won’t miss more than a week of action, which means he ought to be ready to help the Rays again soon — if and when he’s needed.
  • As usual, there’s a lengthy list of Yankees injury updates to touch upon. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch has the latest (all links to Twitter account). Key righties Luis Severino and Dellin Betances are just one step removed from possible rehab outings, which puts them back on the map for activation down the stretch — and potential postseason availability. The situation is less certain for outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who “could take on-field batting practice Tuesday for the first time” since going down with a PCL strain about two months ago. And the club indicates it’s possible that southpaw Jordan Montgomery will be ready to throw in the majors before the end of the regular season. He’s slated to continue his rehab work at Double-A. As for shortstop Didi Gregorius, he’s bouncing back quickly after being hit by a pitch. He could be back in the lineup in short order.

Latest On Yankees’ Voit, Severino, Betances, Sabathia

By | at

Surgery has seemed like a strong possibility for Yankees first baseman Luke Voit since he landed on the injured list with a sports hernia on July 31. Fortunately for New York, however, Voit’s “very optimistic” he’ll be able to avoid going under the knife, Lindsey Adler of The Athletic tweets. Voit will hit Tuesday for the first time he went to the IL.

Core problems have derailed Voit’s season dating back to the start of July, when an abdominal strain forced him to the shelf. This has nonetheless been a strong season for the 28-year-old Voit, who has slashed .278/.392/.493 with 19 home runs in 416 plate appearances. Voit has been one of the top offensive performers in a New York offense that has survived one major injury after another this year en route to a first-place tie for the American League’s best record. With him and DH/first baseman Edwin Encarnacion currently among wounded Yankees, the club has been deploying a combination of utilityman extraordinaire DJ LeMahieu and Mike Ford at 1B. A large cast, including Ford, has been sharing DH duties of late.

Like New York’s offense, its pitching staff has faced notable injuries throughout 2019. The Yankees’ top starter, Luis Severino, and their No. 1 setup man, Dellin Betances, haven’t pitched at all because of shoulder and lat problems. But both right-handers got through their bullpen sessions Monday without issues, per Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network (Twitter links). Expectations are that Severino will throw one more bullpen before he graduates to facing live hitters. There’s optimism he’ll be able to help the Yankees’ rotation by mid-September, David Lennon of Newsday observes. Betances will toss another bullpen Wednesday.

Meanwhile, left-hander CC Sabathia is progressing in his recovery from right knee inflammation and could rejoin the Yankees’ rotation for their series against Cleveland this weekend, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Sabathia has been on the IL since July 28.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top