Giancarlo Stanton is back in the Yankees’ lineup on Friday night, but Luke Voit won’t be there for at least a month or so thanks to a Grade 2 oblique strain – and that, among other injuries, was one of the big topics at hand when Yankees manager Aaron Boone joined Carton & Roberts Friday for his weekly appearance.
“He said he felt something over the weekend but he didn’t say anything because he thought it was minor,” Boone said of Voit. “After the day off Monday, he played Tuesday, and he felt like he couldn’t really cut a swing loose, so the next day he came in and said something. We got it imaged and it was a Grade 2. He’ll be down for a few weeks now, and hopefully we’ll get through this and put it behind him.”
Boone was hoping for it to be just three or four weeks, and when asked if he could explain what an oblique strain is in layman’s terms, the manager laughed “nope!” before offering this:
“I’ve never really had it, but I think there are different areas where it can bother you,” Boone said. “I imagine it’s similar to any other strain – once you strain it to a certain point, it limits what you can do, and if you push through it you can really tear it. It’s one of those things that just needs to heal.”
The Yankees have Mike Ford on the roster, and can also slide DJ LeMahieu over to first to put Rougned Odor at second, so they have options in Voit’s absence – and Boone admitted that one of those could be 2019 Eastern League MVP and long-time farmhand Chris Gittens.
“He’s definitely on our radar, but he actually recently welcomed his first child, so he was out for about a week getting back through protocols and such,” Boone said of Gittens. “He had a good Spring Training with us and is off to a hot start, so he has our attention. He’s knocking on the door and can certainly get in the mix.”
Boone was also asked how Corey Kluber’s sub-scapular strain was diagnosed, or even happened, and this was the skipper’s response:
“It’s hard to say because nothing specific happened with him. The way he described it is that it was really hard for him to get loose in warmups. Sometimes you have outings where that happens and you push through it and eventually loosen up, but by the third inning, he still couldn’t. His command wasn’t sharp either, so when we talked after that inning, we decided to get him out. So it wasn’t one specific pitch or anything, he just felt like he couldn’t get loose.”
The good news for the Yankees, at least for Friday: Aroldis Chapman is feeling better and is available, and flew to Detroit on his own this morning.
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