The Yankees placed Jonathan Loaisiga on the 10-day injured list Sunday due to a strained rotator cuff, and it looks like it will be at least two weeks, if not more, before they have an idea of where one of their main setup men will be down the stretch.
“He had a cortisone shot yesterday and will be no throw for 10 days,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed prior to Sunday’s game. “It’s a tough loss for us, hopefully only a couple of weeks.”
Loaisiga reported something more than normal soreness prior to Saturday’s game, so the Yankees sent him for an MRI that revealed the strain. Team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad gave Loaisiga the cortisone shot, but now, he won’t pick up a ball until at least September 14, when the Yankees have less than three weeks left in their season.
Will that be enough time to get Loaisiga back on track?
“I’m hopeful. We’ll see how the next week to 10 days goes,” Boone said. “Hopefully this is something that is a little bit of a time out and we get him back for the stretch drive.”
Loaisiga has been an elite late-inning reliever this year, ranking in the 98th or 99th percentile in a half-dozen premium analytics categories (including average exit velocity and chase rate), but perhaps the bigger concern may be the fact that Loaisiga has a history of arm and shoulder problems, including a rotator cuff strain that cost him most of the 2018 season.
His 68 innings this season are just two-thirds of a frame shy of his career-high – set way back in 2013 when he was an 18-year-old starter for the Giants’ Dominican Summer League team – and his 54 appearances are 40 percent of his professional career total, so it is possible that workload finally caught up to him, which is something even Boone acknowledged.
“Sure, I mean, he’s out there pitching, and that’s how it happened,” Boone said. ““It’s always a concern of ours how we use guys, and we try our best to be mindful of not overloading them. It’s been a challenge obviously this year with the amount of close games we’ve played.”
Zack Britton is also out for the season and Aroldis Chapman is still struggling with consistency, so the Yankees will need to find another option in the late innings for the short-term, at least – and right now, the Yankees are still unsure if or when they’ll get Domingo German or Luis Severino back as possibilities.
Boone said Sunday that the Yankees won’t rush German just because of Loaisiga’s injury, and Severino told reporters that he’s willing to go to the bullpen because “right now it’s about the team.”
The problems there? Severino was still throwing off flat ground Sunday and waiting to be cleared to throw off a mound after shutting down his rehab assignment for a second time last month, and German won’t face live hitters until at least later next week once the Yankees see how his scheduled bullpen session goes on Monday.
Severino said Sunday he feels good and that he feels confident he can return this year, but did also say “if I can’t I’ll be ready for next year,” so the Yankees may soon have to make a decision there.
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