Nobody would try to pull an April Fool's joke this mean. That's how you knew it was real.
The Yankees announced Monday that Giancarlo Stanton was heading to the IL with a left biceps strain.
And shortly before game time Monday night the team announced Miguel Andujar was being placed on the IL with a shoulder strain.
With a flurry of pitching injuries and the mysterious Aaron Hicks back injury that has turned into a month-long odyssey, the Yankees are now down another big bat that has ripple effects to the roster and the batting order.
"It was pretty good news considering what it could have been," Aaron Boone said after revealing that Stanton will be shut down for ten days with a grade one strain.
"The initial quickness at the start of my swing is the main issue," Stanton said when asked what was hampered by this injury—which he's never before experienced. He then indicated this is different than the hamstring issue that he played through during the second half of last season.
"You can battle through certain things, but not (this)," Stanton said.
"Hopefully we get him back at some point this month," Boone said. "I feel like we have a club capable of weathering that storm."
While picking up the slack is a team-wide agenda, there are two players to focus on that can provide a big boost in Stanton's absence.
The first is Clint Frazier, who was not in Monday's starting lineup but Boone said will be "playing quite a bit."
Frazier had a disappointing spring training after finally kicking the post-concussion symptoms from the injury that derailed his 2018 season. He was shipped out to AAA with the idea that regular playing time would get him back to peak form.
But a funny thing happened in the days leading up to the start of the minor league season. Frazier began tinkering with his swing in the days after he was optioned last month.
"I made a few mechanical adjustments that simplified things for me a little bit," said Frazier, who admitted he was thinking too much about his mechanics during the first part of spring training.
The tweak was minor ("Just trying to be as simple as I could and just trying to be as athletic as I can in the box"), but left him confident. And then just after he landed in Scranton Sunday night to get ready for the start of the AAA season, Frazier was told to detour to New York where he will get another shot to prove his talent isn't just hype.
"It's the opportunity that I wanted last year," Frazier said. "And I think there was a chance for me to come up (last year), but unfortunately I was going through my own kind of injuries so I didn't get the opportunity. Right now I'm feeling the best I've felt at the plate in a long time."
The other player who is now a much bigger piece of the puzzled is DJ LeMahieu.
Already considered a regular player, one the Yankees want to find as many at-bats for as possible, LeMahieu got off to a fast start in the 9-hole against Baltimore, playing both second and third base.
Now LeMahieu becomes the starting third baseman with Andujar out. Tyler Wade was recalled and will serve as a backup infielder.
"I envision him kind of hitting all over the lineup," said Boone of LeMahieu, who was playing third base and batting seventh Monday. Boone said LeMahieu could bat leadoff against a lefty (which the Yankees will face Wednesday) or in the middle of the order at times.
Stanton was the regular number three hitter. Andujar hit fifth in each of the first three games. Boone now has decisions to make on how best to fill up the middle of his order, and he could do a lot worse than utilizing the high-contact swing of LeMahieu to break up some of his swing-and-miss guys.
After only two days LeMahieu has distinguished himself—both defensively and offensively—a guy worthy of as much playing time as the Yankees can give him.
"Just confirming all along what we thought about him," Boone said of LeMahieu. "He's fit really well into the group. There's an edge that he plays the game with that I really like. That's fun to see when you get into the heat of it. We're just seeing a really good player that's obviously going to play a big role for us."
The Yankees were under a lot of public pressure to spend big this past winter. They passed on both Manny Machado and Bryce Harper and felt they had the depth to take on some hits and still be a championship caliber team.
The Yankees had better be sure. It's okay to be the fool in April. It's the other months later in the year that you want to stay away from.
