As if the Yankees weren’t in a huge hole already after losing Curtis Granderson for the first month and a half of the season. Now they lose their stud first baseman Mark Teixeira for about the same amount of time.
Granderson went down earlier in the spring with a fractured forearm, now Teixeira goes down with a strained right wrist. This is a team that could also be without their long time shortstop and franchise player, Derek Jeter, for the first month of the season and also their stud closer, Mariano Rivera. To add insult to injury, Alex Rodriguez will also be out until after the all-star break. Phil Hughes, who was expected to be in the middle of that rotation, is still rehabbing the bulging disk in his back.
Talk about bad luck. That is six of your better players that you’re going to be without for a decent chunk of the season. I think right now if you’re a Yankee fan you’d just rather see them completely shut Robinson Cano down for the spring with the back luck that has been hovering over your team.
While Teixeira hasn’t been as productive in the past couple seasons he is still a guy that poses a threat in the middle of any line-up and at the end of the day he is still Mark Teixeira.
“This ain’t good” said Yankee GM Brian Cashman of all the injuries to his squad. Cashman has recently had bad luck involving his own body as he fractured his fibula and dislocated his ankle in a sky-diving accident.
Nothing has gone right for the Yankees ever since Jeter went down in the playoffs last year. Rivera’s injury is the only thing that happened before that that put the Yanks in a bind. On top of all of it, Alex Rodriguez was basically invisible in the playoffs this past season and now he will be out for an extended period of time.
We’re looking at a Yankee team that will not look anywhere close to the same as they have in the past on opening day. Juan Rivera, Dan Johnson, and Kevin Youkilis are the guys that are listed behind Teixeira on the depth chart at first base. Well, Youkilis is already filling in at 3rd base for Rodriguez.
Eduardo Nunez is probably your starting shortstop for opening day and with the injury to Granderson, Brett Gardner will most likely move from left field to center field which leaves Juan Rivera in left field for opening day. This is a manager’s worst nightmare. Joe Girardi is basically left with Ichiro in right field, Cano at second and then C.C. Sabathia as your notable healthy “star players.”
Girardi was quoted a couple weeks ago saying that the Yankees are a 95 win team this season. Well, Joe, I’d say that with the players you’ll be putting out there on opening day and the fact that the AL East is by far the toughest division on paper in baseball this year, you might be looking at 95 losses as opposed to 95 wins this year.
We’re finally seeing a power shift in the AL East and there is a good chance we might see the two teams that have been dominating the top of that division for so long, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, battling to stay out of the very bottom of it this year.
