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Latest On Yankees’ COVID-19 Situation

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JULY 16: Testing today has turned up zero new positive cases, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). However, Boone added that six Yankees players have been confirmed positive within the past week and are expected to miss at least ten days, suggesting that follow-up testing on Judge, Urshela and Higashioka has confirmed their positive results. Friday’s game against the Red Sox will be played, with yesterday’s postponement to be made up as part of a doubleheader on August 17.

JULY 15, 5:20 pm: Judge is indeed the Yankees All-Star in question, The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham reports (via Twitter).  Gio Urshela, and Kyle Higashioka are the other two Yankees in COVID protocol, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets.

JULY 15, 5:05 pm: Rafael Devers and other Red Sox All-Star representatives were asked to undergo additional COVID-19 testing after being told that one of the Yankees’ All-Star reps tested positive, ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter links) reports.  This would indicate at least one of Aaron Judge, Aroldis Chapman, or Gerrit Cole — Cole was replaced on the All-Star roster but was still present during festivities.

JULY 15, 3:39 pm: Tonight’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees has been postponed due to a COVID-19 situation within the Yankees’ clubhouse, as originally reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).  Major League Baseball released an official announcement about the postponement, noting “positive COVID-19 tests within the New York Yankees organization.”  There isn’t yet any word about a make-up date for tonight’s contest, and it isn’t yet known if any other games in the scheduled four-game series could be in jeopardy.

Speaking with The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler (all links to Twitter) and other reporters, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said the club has six ongoing COVID-19 cases, all of players.  Cashman confirmed that the three players currently on the Yankees’ COVID-related injury list (left-handers Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta, and righty Jonathan Loaisiga) all tested positive for the virus, while three other potential cases are pending confirmation of positive results.  ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that “at least two” of the positive COVID tests were delivered by Yankees position players.

Most importantly, Cashman indicated that the cases appear to be asymptomatic, saying “As of right now, everybody is ok.”  The Yankees as a whole have passed the league’s mandated 85% vaccination rate , though Cashman said that only “most” of the six players had received vaccines.  Cortes, Peralta, and Loaisiga had all been vaccinated.

Cortes and Peralta were placed on the COVID-19 list earlier today, while Loaisiga’s placement came back on July 10.  Loaisiga has yet to rejoin the team from their road trip in Houston, Cashman said, as the right-hander has been quarantined.

This is the second time the Yankees have been hit with a COVID outbreak this season, after eight players and coaches tested positive for the virus back in May.  (New York manager Aaron Boone told Adler and other reporters today that Gleyber Torres’ positive test at the time was actually a false positive.)  That outbreak didn’t result in any postponed games, as while COVID-IL placements have still been rather common this season, today’s Red Sox/Yankees matchup is the only the eighth game of the season to be postponed for COVID-related reasons.  The other seven postponements all took place prior to April 19.

COVID Notes: 7/10/21

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The latest on coronavirus situations from around baseball…

  • Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm was removed from today’s game in the eighth inning for what manager Joe Girardi described only as reasons related to “COVID protocols.”  Officials aren’t required to provide detailed information about COVID-19 situations, and Girardi just told reporters (including NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman) that “we’ll know more as time goes on.  That’s all I can give you right now.”  It isn’t yet known if Bohm will be placed on the actual COVID-related injury list, and such a placement isn’t necessarily a sure thing — in the event of a close contact situation or perhaps an inconclusive test result, Bohm could be cleared in time for Sunday’s game with the Red Sox.  Following a very impressive 2020 rookie season, Bohm has hit a sophomore slump, hitting only .243/.298/.343 with six home runs in 329 PA this year.
  • The Yankees placed right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga on the COVID-related injury list prior to today’s game with the Astros.  Along with the placement of Miguel Andujar on the regular 10-day IL due to a left wrist strain, New York called up right-handers Albert Abreu and Brooks Kriske from Triple-A to fill the spots on the 26-man roster.  Yankees manager Aaron Boone also didn’t give specifics on Loaisiga’s status to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch and other reporters, except to say that Loaisiga “feels good.”  The righty has been a force out of the Yankees’ bullpen this season, posting a 2.11 ERA, 63.9% grounder rate, an outstanding 5.5% walk rate and an above-average 25.1% strikeout rate over 47 innings.

Yankees Reinstate Giancarlo Stanton, Gio Urshela, Jonathan Loaisiga From Injured List

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The Yankees announced that outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, infielder Gio Urshela and right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga have all been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.  Miguel Andujar and Mike Ford were optioned to the alternate training site in corresponding moves, and the Yankees already had an open roster space since right-hander Clarke Schmidt was optioned after Sunday’s game.

Stanton hit the IL with a left hamstring strain back on August 9, and the Yankees and their fans are hoping that the slugger can finally enjoy a sustained run of healthy play after almost two full seasons of inactivity due to various leg injuries.  Stanton played in only 18 games in 2019 and appeared in 14 games this season before going on the injured list, with this year’s absence being particularly disappointing since Stanton was off to a huge start (hitting .293/.453/.585 with three homers in 54 PA).

However, Stanton’s return gives him time to get ramped up prior to the postseason, as the Yankees are starting to get healthy at perhaps just the right time.  Urshela will back to action after a minimal 10-day placement due to a bone spur in his right elbow, and the third baseman has followed up his breakout 2019 campaign with a strong .272/.358/.515 slash line and six homers in 120 PA this season.  Aaron Judge is also expected to soon return from a calf injury.

Loaisiga’s return is also welcome news for the Yankees, especially considering the rather unusual nature of his IL placement.  On September 4, the Yankees said Loaisiga was suffering from “a medical condition that prevents him from playing and necessitates placement on the injured list,” with manager Aaron Boone later specifying that the right-hander’s absence was not due to COVID-19.  Regardless, it is good to see Loaisiga back in relatively quick fashion.  The 25-year-old has a 3.18 ERA, 5.00 K/BB rate, and 10.6 K/9 over 17 innings this season.

Yankees Place Gio Urshela, Jonathan Loaisiga On Injured List

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The Yankees announced Friday that third baseman Gio Urshela and right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga have been placed on the 10-day injured list. Urshela is dealing with a bone spur in his right elbow, while Loasigia has “a medical condition that prevents him from playing and necessitates placement on the injured list,” per the team’s release. Manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler) that Loaisiga’s condition is not Covid-19 related. Infielder/outfielder Miguel Andujar and righty Miguel Yajure are up from the team’s alternate site.

Urshela, 28, has continued last year’s breakout showing in 2020, getting out to a very strong .272/.358/.515 start at the plate and swatting six homers in his first 120 plate appearances. He heads to the injured list, alongside shortstop Gleyber Torres, less than a week after DJ LeMahieu returned from the injured list. The Yankees are also without key sluggers Aaron Judge (strained calf) and Giancarlo Stanton (strained hamstring).

There’s no further information on Loaisiga at this point. It’s a rather ominous update on the 25-year-old righty, who has pitched quite well in 17 frames with the Yankees in 2020. Loaisiga has a 20-to-4 K/BB ratio and a 3.18 ERA in that short time, and he’s also induced grounders at a solid 48.8 percent clip. His absence will be felt by the Yankee pitching staff, but the greater concern is his overall well-being. Best wishes to the young right-hander on a full recovery.

Latest On James Paxton, Yankees’ Rotation

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Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake told reporters Wednesday that left-hander James Paxton is progressing well in his rehab from back surgery (Twitter links via Brendan Kuty of the New Jersey Star-Ledger). The left-hander went under the knife in early February, after which the Yankees announced a timetable of three to four months for his recovery. Paxton is throwing at his home in Wisconsin, and the club is optimistic about his recovery.

As notably, Blake revealed that right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga would’ve factored “heavily” into the team’s rotation picture had the season begun on time. Absent Paxton, Luis Severino and Domingo German, it was clear that left-hander Jordan Montgomery was the team’s fourth starter (behind Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ). Loaisiga was one of many candidates vying for the fifth spot — a race that also included Mike King, Deivi Garcia, Luis Cessa and perhaps non-roster invitees such as Chad Bettis and Nick Tropeano.

Loaisiga’s standing could be rendered moot with Opening Day pushed back indefinitely, as it appears increasingly likely that Paxton could be ready to suit up when (or if) the season does eventually commence. But it’s nevertheless telling that Loaisiga appears to have had a leg up on his competitors, as that could provide some insight into the organization’s contingency plans in the event of additional early-season injuries.

The 25-year-old Loaisiga has been plagued by durability issues himself, including last season, when a shoulder strain limited him to 80 2/3 innings between the minors and the big leagues. However, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus both ranked him among baseball’s 100 best prospects prior to the ’19 season. In a combined 88 2/3 minor league innings from 2017-18, he posted a 2.60 ERA with a 100-to-11 K/BB ratio.

AL Notes: Yankees’ Rotation, Royals, Perez

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Some notes on the Yankees and Royals to kick off Sunday morning:

  • Jordan Montgomery is the “overwhelming favorite” for the fourth spot in the Yankees’ rotation, notes George King III of the New York Post. That’s not especially surprising, given that the lefty’s Tommy John procedure is now 21 months behind him. The 27-year-old’s strong 2017 rookie season positions him well to step up in the wake of injuries to Luis Severino and James Paxton. The final spot in the rotation is still entirely up for grabs, although King feels Jonathan Loaisiga is the early frontrunner. Surprisingly, King notes that right-hander Clarke Schmidt could be in the fifth starter mix after turning some heads early in spring training. The 24-year-old was the Yankees’ first-round pick out of the University of South Carolina in 2017, but he’s made all of three career starts above High-A, thanks largely to rehab from a Tommy John of his own. That, coupled with Schmidt’s roster status (he needn’t be added to the 40-man until after this season), would seem to make him a long shot for a season-opening role.
  • One pitcher who might not be as strong a contender for the Yankees’ final rotation spot is Luis Cessa, whom King says the club “seemingly likes…in the bullpen.” That jibes with a similar report from Bryan Hoch of MLB.com earlier this week, although Hoch’s report came before news broke of Severino’s season-ending Tommy John surgery. From the outside, it appeared that blow could have changed the calculus on Cessa’s potential usage, but it seems he’s still more likely to occupy a bullpen role in 2020. The 27-year-old has started 19 of his 86 career MLB appearances, but he was used exclusively as a reliever in 2019.
  • Salvador Pérez logged four innings behind the plate in the Royals’ spring training game Friday (h/t to the Associated Press). That marked his first catching action since his Tommy John surgery last March. “It was kind of like Opening Day — once you catch the first pitch, it’s a regular game,” Pérez said postgame, via the AP. “I blocked some balls, threw to second base between innings. It was all great.” At last check, the 29-year-old was on track to be ready for Opening Day. In 2018, Pérez hit just .235/.274/.439 (89 wRC+), but he’s long shouldered extremely high workloads behind the plate in Kansas City.

Latest On Yankees’ Rotation

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The Yankees’ rotation looked set when the month of February started, but the back surgery left-hander James Paxton recently underwent threw a wrench in their plans. They’re now lacking an obvious answer after Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ. The team will give plenty of hurlers chances to emerge as its No. 5 during spring training, though, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays.

General manager Brian Cashman on Wednesday named five pitchers – Luis Cessa, Deivi Garcia, Jonathan Loaisiga, Michael King and Jordan Montgomery – as candidates to take the last spot in New York’s rotation. The leader may be the 27-year-old Montgomery, who had an impressive rookie campaign in 2017 but hasn’t been much of a factor since then because of injury troubles. Montgomery underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2018 after throwing a mere 27 1/3 innings that year, though he did make a late-season return to a major league mound in 2019. Manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday that Montgomery’s now “in a good place” with respect to his health.

As for Montgomery’s competition, Cessa and Loaisiga have each garnered a decent amount of experience at the game’s highest level. Cessa’s heater checks in around 95 mph, but it hasn’t led to great results in the majors. He’s the owner of a 4.50 ERA/4.98 FIP with 7.37 K/9 and 2.91 BB/9 in 232 career innings. Most of his work (67 of 86 appearances) has come as a reliever. Cessa is out of minor league options, so he could end up in another organization if he doesn’t make the Yankees this spring.

Loaisiga can throw even harder than Cessa (96-97 mph), and he’s a former top-100 prospect, but his MLB production hasn’t been special, either. While Loaisiga recorded a tremendous strikeout rate of 11.18 per nine in his first 56 1/3 innings as a Yankee from 2018-19, he walked almost five per nine and only registered a 4.79 ERA/4.33 FIP. Moreover, the right-hander dealt with shoulder problems last season.

Neither Garcia nor King has appeared in the majors yet, but there’s plenty of promise in the two cases. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked the 20-year-old Garcia as the game’s 42nd-best prospect Wednesday, calling the 5-foot-10, 163-pounder  “a diminutive firecracker righty with a beautiful curveball.” However, because of his size, there are questions about Garcia’s durability. He also didn’t put up great numbers last year as an extremely young Triple-A pitcher, as he managed a subpar 5.40 ERA/5.77 FIP with 10.13 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 over 40 innings at the level.

King, 24, racked up a combined 62 2/3 innings in Triple-A from 2018-19, pitching to a sterling 2.30 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in that span. He even made a one-appearance MLB debut last season, and currently ranks as the Yankees’ 19th-best prospect at MLB.com.

Considering how volatile the back end of most teams’ rotations are, it’s entirely possible (maybe even likely) that more than one of the above hurlers will start games for the Yankees as they await Paxton’s return. The World Series hopefuls figure to get Paxton back early in the summer, so those who wind up filling his spot could be on borrowed time in that role.

Yankees Place CC Sabathia On 10-Day Injured List

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The Yankees placed lefty CC Sabathia on the 10-day injured list for the fourth time this season, the team announced. Jonathan Loaisiga has been recalled from Triple-A.

This news hardly comes as a surprise after Sabathia exited Friday’s start after three innings. Right knee inflammation is the diagnosis, but it’s certainly worth wondering if Sabathia will be healthy enough to pitch again, in this the final season of an epic career.

The 39-year-old Sabathia finally showed signs of slowing down this season as he’s struggled to stay healthy and productive. At 5-8 with a 4.93 ERA/5.97 FIP across 20 starts and 100 1/3 innings for the Yanks this year, he’s posted just 0.5 rWAR and 0.3 fWAR on the year.

Loaisiga, 24, has 3 starts and 3 relief appearances under his belt so far this year. A lackluster 5.12 ERA/5.50 FIP can be traced to 4.7 BB/9 and 1.9 HR/9 in the small sample. He hasn’t done much more in Triple-A in an injury-shortened season, though believers can point to 11.2 K/9 to 2.5 BB/9 in Scranton Wilkes-Barre as a sign of returning to form.

Latest On Yankees Pitching Plans

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The Yankees rotation has long been a source of worry for fans of the club. While the concerns haven’t stopped the Yanks from dominating the AL East, the staff isn’t without question marks. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch is among the reporters to pass along the latest from the team (in this report and these tweets).

Of most immediate concern was the news that veteran southpaw CC Sabathia will return to the active roster on Sunday. He’ll return following a brief respite for his problematic knee and look to improve upon his 4.78 ERA.

Even if Sabathia is able to get some positive momentum going, he doesn’t seem like an optimal postseason starter. The same holds for the club’s other aging lefty rotation piece, J.A. Happ, whose season-long struggles are well-documented. He’ll be looking for a turnaround outing today.

It’s interesting to think about the possible ways the Yankees could best utilize these veteran southpaws. Perhaps the most intriguing concept is some kind of piggyback arrangement involving a pair of high-octane young righties who may not quite be capable of handling full starter’s duties this season. Jonathan Loaisiga is just returning from injury and hasn’t yet established himself in the bigs, while Luis Severino is still working back. There’s optimism Severino will be a factor next month, though even a minor setback could end his season and he may not be able to ramp up fully so late in the year.

There are also at least some questions involving the late-season handling of the emergent Domingo German. As Hoch explains, German did not reach 100 frames last year and has never thrown more than 123 1/3 in a professional season (a high-water mark he reached in 2014). The club is not going to let him throw an unrestrained volume of innings this year, but also has decided not to publicize the limits.

Indeed, skipper Aaron Boone says that the organization has not “even honestly gotten deep into those conversations yet” as to when and how to pull back on German’s usage. Boone suggests that the return of other hurlers will help the club manage the 27-year-old’s workload. Fortunately, with a big division lead to work with, it seems the Yanks aren’t worried that they’ll miss out on any key innings. “[W]e feel like he’s strong right now and still has a lot left in the tank,” says Boone.

There is still one other intriguing possibility to keep an eye on as well. Tommy John rehabber Jordan Montgomery has thrown a two-inning sim game. Could he be an option late in the year and into the postseason? “We’ll see,” says Boone.

Yankees Announce Series Of Pitching Transactions

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The Yankees announced a series of pitching transactions today. Recently acquired southpaw Joe Mantiply was designated for assignment, removing him from the 40-man roster. Also departing the 40-man is southpaw Daniel Camarena, who was released.

Those 40-man spots went to a pair of other hurlers. The club activated righty Jonathan Loaisiga from the 60-day injured list and selected the contract of righty Adonis Rosa. The Yanks had already optioned Mantiply and righty Brady Lail, opening the two active roster spots that have now been filled.

What’s most significant here for the division-leading Yankees is the return of Loaisiga. He has battled shoulder troubles this year and hasn’t yet been a consistent piece at the MLB level. But the talent is obvious and the Yanks have plenty to gain by getting him up to speed down the stretch. He is not fully stretched out as a starter, so the club seems likely to utilize him in some sort of relief role, perhaps of the multi-inning variety.

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