The Yankees are all of a sudden down another starter.
Prior to Thursday’s game against Toronto, the Yankees announced that they have placed RHP Jameson Taillon on the 10-day injured list with a right ankle tendon injury. RHP Sal Romano was selected from Triple-A to replace him on the 28-man roster, and the team designated outfielder Jonathan Davis for assignment to make room on the 40-man.
“He has a partial tear of a tendon in his ankle and it happened at some point in his last start. He felt something toward the end of the outing and had a little swelling in there,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday. “Hyun-Jin Ryu was pitching and it's a similar landing spot and hole, so maybe there was some instability there that happened at some point. He's not sure, because there's no specific thing he ever felt, he just noticed being sore.”
Taillon is in a walking boot that he should be out of on Friday and had a platelet-rich plasma injection this week, and according to Boone, pushing for a return would be more of a pain tolerance issue for Taillon as opposed to doing more damage, and the team is hopeful he’ll only miss one start.
“Am I confident in that? No, because there is the chance it's a day-to-day thing and he he only misses one, but it could be something that drags on,” Boone said. “When I first heard it, it sounds worse than it is, but his body will tell us what he’s able to handle, so we’ll see where he is when he gets out of the boot.”
Luis Gil, who started Wednesday’s game, will take another turn in the rotation while Taillon is out, but with Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery, and Corey Kluber set for the next three games, the Yankees now have a TBD for Sunday and possibly even Monday depending on where Gerrit Cole may be able to slot in after leaving his last start early due to hamstring tightness.
“Cole played catch today and all went well, so he’s pretty confident he’ll be able to go early next week,” Boone said. “Depending on when he does his bullpen, I think Saturday, if all goes well, he could potentially slot in Monday or Tuesday. Kind of eyeing Tuesday for his start. He's pretty encouraged by how he feels."
Based on that TBD and the usage of the Yankees’ bullpen as of late, Boone said that Clarke Schmidt, who threw 4 1/3 innings at Triple-A on Sunday, “is in consideration for a number of things,” but that while “anything is possible with what we’ve been through,” Deivi Garcia, who is with the team as a taxi squad player Thursday and is scheduled to start Friday for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, is “not necessarily” in the mix.
Michael King, who threw three innings at Triple-A Tuesday and is expected to be activated Friday, also “could factor in,” as could Andrew Heaney, but King may be needed more in relief over the weekend before the Yankees get to that Sunday TBD.
“I view Michael serving in a number of roles depending on what our usage looks like over the weekend,” Boone said. “He’s coming off three innings and 40-plus pitches so he’s built up, but he’ll factor in as early as tomorrow.”
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Whatever may come, Boone is confident the Yankees can weather the storm.
“These are important people we’ve lost, especially with what we’re going through as a group right now and the importance of these games, but we have the guys in that room right now capable of getting this done,” he said.
“We know we need to turn it around and start playing better, but we feel we’re in a position to do that.”
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