Multiple injuries hit key parts of the Yankee roster on Wednesday.
The Yanks were hoping for a favorable diagnosis on Corey Kluber’s shoulder tightness that forced him to leave Tuesday night’s game after three innings, but the veteran righty will be out for at least a month, as Aaron Boone told reporters on Wednesday that Kluber suffered a subscapularis strain that will sideline him from throwing for four weeks.
Boone said Kluber would go for a second MRI as well, but for now, he won’t pick up a baseball for at least four weeks, and won't return for at least eight weeks.
“He’s got a subscap strain,” Boone said. “So within that diagnosis, it’s four weeks of no-throw, but he is going back to get another MRI with the…dye in there just to rule anything else out. So as of now, that’s the diagnosis.”
In addition, Luke Voit will also be heading to the IL after suffering a grade two oblique strain, after the slugging first baseman returned from the IL following knee surgery earlier this month.
“He’s gonna be down a little bit now,” Boone said of Voit. “Something he kind of started to feel Saturday, and after yesterday’s game, just felt like he couldn’t let it go how he wanted to.”
Kluber, in his first outing since pitching a no-hitter, was pulled after three innings on Tuesday with shoulder tightness, which raised concerns given Kluber’s recent injury history, which included a season-ending shoulder tear after pitching just one inning in 2020. Kluber told reporters after Wednesday’s game that the tightness began during his warmups and never loosened up, though he added it felt much different from the pain he felt when he tore his shoulder last year.
Boone didn’t reveal a potential rotation replacement for Kluber, who will hit the IL with a 3.04 ERA over 53.1 innings this season, but Deivi Garcia would be a likely candidate. He’s pitched once with the Yanks this season, allowing two runs over four innings and has allowed nine earned runs in 15.2 innings in Triple-A.
“Next man up,” Boone said. “Obviously those are valuable innings we have to make up for in the short term, and we’ll find a way to do that.”
Voit has put together just 44 at-bats this season after starting late due to a partially torn meniscus, and missed time in 2019 due to a core injury. His absence could mean more at-bats for Mike Ford, who is batting .154 this season and hasn’t played since May 22.
“Obviously, he’s frustrated with what he’s been through just to get back and had such success with the knee and coming back,” Boone said of Voit. “So to have a setback here that is going to land him on the IL, obviously he’s very frustrated with that, but hopefully it’s not something that keeps him down too long.”
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