When the Yankees’ World Series roster was announced with 13 position players, a quick glance saw that it was Jon Berti, and not one of the barely-used Jasson Dominguez or Trent Grisham, dropped to allow Nestor Cortes to be added to the pitching staff.
We found out hours later there’s good reason: Berti is injured.
“It’s a hip flexor; he hurt himself in Game 4 when he scored that one,” Boone said Friday before Game 1. “We were kind of hoping to get him through, but he wasn’t even going to be available to us in Game 5.”
‘Time ran out’ on Berti to be ready for the World Series, so it was him losing his spot, and making Oswaldo Cabrera the only reserve infielder.
“That’s a blow for us; I feel he plays a really important role for us. Definitely didn’t want it, but unfortunately, just not enough to get back for this one,” Boone said. “I feel for him, though, right now, because he, I think, was playing a really important role for us, especially in those first two rounds.”
Berti played in just 25 regular season games around a pair of lower-body injuries, a groin strain that cost him three weeks in April and a calf strain that sidelined him just before Memorial Day and kept him out until the second week of September.
He ended up as the starting first baseman for two games in the ALDS and one in the ALCS, going 2-for-11 with a walk while playing decent defense in his first-ever turn at the position. He was pinch-running for Anthony Rizzo when he scored in the ninth inning of Game 4, tallying the go-ahead run in an eventual 8-6 win when he was hurt.
Rizzo is still playing with two fractured fingers, and Cabrera - who also started two ALDS games - is now the backup first baseman; beyond that, the Yankees could possibly use Trent Grisham, who has not played this postseason but did take some reps at first before the ALDS when Rizzo was hurt, there in a pinch. Ben Rice could also be added to the roster in the case of further injury to Rizzo, or any other player on the roster.