NEW YORK — This may be the new-look Yankees, but they are constantly dealing with the same old thing: injuries. Saturday it was another huge blow with Aroldis Chapman going on the injured list before the Yankees' game against the Mariners with left elbow inflammation.
The Yankees are hopeful this is just a short trip to the IL.
“He had it a little bit in Miami,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees win 5-4 over the Mariners Saturday. “He got an MRI. The MRI was good news. So I think it’s just going to be a few days of no throwing, and then, it should be able to ramp up from there.
“I’m hopeful that on that 10th day he’s activated. Just a little bit of inflammation.”
Chapman had just seemed to be putting a rocky month behind him, picking up his 23rd save Thursday night, but he was working on the edge again and needed 30 pitches to get out of the ninth inning against the Mariners.
It’s another punch to the gut for the Yankees, who seemed to be turning things around and making a push to get back in the mix in the American League East race. They already have taken a lot of gut punches this season, heck even three this week.
The Yankees had to place starters Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery on the COVID-19 IL on Tuesday. Catcher Gary Sanchez joined them on Wednesday after testing positive. This is the third COVID-19 outbreak the Yankees, who reached the 85% vaccinated mark among players and personnel very early in the season, have had this year.
Domingo German is also on the IL with inflammation in his right shoulder.
With three starters down this week, the Yankees had to go to a bullpen game to win Friday night. They had nine pitchers throw nine scoreless innings in their 11-inning walk off win over the Mariners.
Chapman was notably not one of them.
The 33-year-old lefty has made 43 appearances this season pitching 39 2/3 innings and throwing 694 pitches. That is way past the workload he had in last year’s COVID-19 pandemic abbreviated, 60-game season. Chapman also began that season on the injured list having tested positive for the coronavirus the first week of training camp in July. He made just 13 appearances, pitching 11.2 innings in 2020 and throwing 199 pitches.
That unusual year for pitchers, who are among the most particular when it comes to routines, was a huge concern for everyone in baseball coming into this season.
Since the Yankees have played an extraordinary amount of close games, Chapman has been pitching in a lot of high-stress innings, even more than the normal high-leverage innings of a closer.
And he was showing some signs of strain earlier this year.
After pitching to a 0.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks in his first 23 appearances this season — over 23 1/3 innings pitched, Chapman gave up 14 earned runs in his next 11 appearances, which also dates back to the beginning of MLB’s crackdown on the sticky substances pitchers use for better grips and spin rates. He’s walked 12 and struck out nine and gotten through just 6 2/3 innings in those 11 appearances.
Since July 6, however, Chapman has allowed just one earned run over 11 innings in 11 appearances. He’s struck out 19 and walked eight.
