There is no good time for Yankees catchers Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine to miss games, but some options are worse than others.
Sanchez and Romine were suspended Friday four and two games, respectively, for their actions during Thursday's three bench-clearing incidents in Detroit.
Both are appealing and while most of the time that results in a reduction of some kind, the safe assumption is they still will get time off, which very well could come during the four-game Red Sox series that begins Thursday at the Stadium. The appeals have not yet been heard.
"It's something that you are worried about," Joe Girardi said before his team opened a three-game set against the AL Central-leading Indians. "But again, my focus is really today. It's possible but we don't have any word on it yet."
Both players simply could have chosen to serve the suspensions immediately but as part of the collective-bargaining agreement, they have the right to appeal.
"They have the option of appealing," Girardi said.
With Kyle Higashioka on the minor-league DL, Eddy Rodriguez, the catcher for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, is the most likely candidate to come up in the event of a suspension for Sanchez and/or Romine. Unlike Higashioka, Rodriguez, 31, is not on the 40-man roster, so a spot would have be made for him.
