The Yankees revealed to reporters earlier today that Michael Pineda has a partial UCL tear and has been recommended to undergo Tommy John surgery, and the bad injury news doesn’t stop there. Via Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com, GM Brian Cashman also elaborated on Greg Bird’s ankle injury today and revealed that the young first baseman may require surgery.
Bird is dealing with an ailment called “os trigonum” syndrome — an excess bone growth that could require surgical removal. Bird is headed for another opinion on his ankle and will have further discussions with medical professionals, the team and his agents before deciding on a course of action. The surgery would sideline Bird for “at least another two months,” per Marchand. One alternative is a second cortisone shot, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (on Twitter).
With Bird and Tyler Austin ailing and Chris Carter cut loose after struggling, the Yankees swung a trade to acquire 26-year-old Triple-A first baseman Garrett Cooper from the Brewers yesterday. Cashman tells reporters that Cooper will be brought directly onto the roster to make his MLB debut — moving Pineda to the 60-day DL would open a roster spot — for this weekend’s series at Fenway Park. At the very least, the right-handed-hitting Cooper will see at-bats against left-handed pitching this weekend, tweets Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media. Through 320 plate appearances in Triple-A this year, Cooper was hitting .366/.428/.652 with 17 homers, although those numbers came in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League (specifically, in the launching pad that is Colorado Springs).
The hits just keep on coming…
Holy crap this is bad
Not the end of the world. Let him get the surgery, rehab in off season and we’ll see how he does next spring. It’s not like he has been putting up any big numbers this season.
He’s a free agent after this season. I doubt he’ll be back.
What? He’s not even arb eligible yet!
Get surgery and he will return in September.
Think he was referring to Pineda
Bird isn’t a FA until 2022.
I understand why they traded for Cooper. What I can’t understand is why they won’t give Mike Ford in AAA a chance? Anyone have any insight into why it seems he keeps getting passed up?
I have no clue where you got that from…he’s not even arbitration eligible yet…
Were you by chance talking about Pineda? Because I assumed you were talking about Bird
Yes I read his comment wrong
he’s been out for a while now, this isn’t news
The Curse of Aroldis Chapman claims another!!!!
Oh no! Not Pineda….he should just rub a big glob of pine tar on it….
Time to get Bour
End of Pineda in pinstripes. And the start of Adams in pinstripes hopefully!
Cards fan here: Trade proposal. I think the Yankees will be buyers and the Cardinals probably won’t be sellers, but if they are…
Lance Lynn
For
Greg Bird and Tyler Wade
Would you do it?
I wouldn’t do it as either team. The Yankees would be over paying. Voit is going to given every chance to be the Cards 1st baseman. Lynn is not a big game pitcher. In my opinion just not a solid trade for either team.
That’s fair. Sadly, we are at a state in baseball where Lance Lynn is probably going to field a top 20 prospect for an organization.
Bird has the bat, so if he can stay healthy a team will find a way to get his bat in the lineup.
I like Lynn, I’m a Cards fan, but he’s a #3 at best. I’d love for him to bring back a top 20 prospect. Hopefully a SS with a decent bat and glove.
I don’t think a #3 will bring you back a top 20 in BB guy especially since he’s a FA at the end of the season.
That being said, if I could get away with giving less than Wade and Bird I would try but the offer is at leasst realistic..
Greg bird has a lot of potential regardless of injury history and cashman is a big fan of his doubt anything would happen there
Lance lynn for Hoy Jun Park hes ranked Yankees 23rd best prospect.
The Bird situation really sucks as it looks like he will end up missing 2 years! They should shut him down and get the surgery and hope he can come up for a month at the end of the season and cement himself as next years starter. Losing Pineda doesn’t bother me as I hope it helps quell the teams delusions that they are contenders this year. Bring up a kid or kids and let’s see what we have for next year. This is a 2018 and beyond team not a team of the present.
The Yankees have been hit twice today with bad news meaning they need to do some work before the deadline. I think they should look at guys like Justin Bour and Sonny Gray and they need to find a better third basemen because Chase Headley is not cutting it
My guess is bird gets surgery Yankees get yonder Alonso and a 3 or 4 pitcher like lance lynn
And in order to do that, they would essentially have to clear out the farm….do you really think that any GM, especially Billy Bean is going to not take advantage of all this bad news and demand more than they would have yesterday from the Yankees.
Alonzo may be a 1 hit wonder, Sonny Gray will cost too much and he may in fact be more injury prone than current Yankee pitchers, and Miami will demand way too much for Bour. Even if we got any of them, doesn’t look like there is any chance on making the playoffs…..and making the Wild Card doesn’t count unless you progress to the next round.
this just puts the yanks in a hold pattern for me. they struggled before the break and the bad news with Pineida hits more. it’s hard to argue this is a playoff team when they are now down a #3 and need upgrades at both corners.
it’s two weeks to the deadline. see how this first week goes and where you are and others are. if you are 3-7 or worse, bring up the kids and see what they provide. they may provide the spark to sneak in but the worst thing would be to trade some prospects for rentals and sneak in or worse not make it.
though if I’m the yanks I do maybe consider the cubs route of looking at pitchers with term. considering the starting rotation next year could be severino Montgomery Adams sabathia, they will need help.
CC is a free agent after this year
did anyone else just get an alert that Torii Hunter went to NY???
This should cement the course of action over the balance of the season with respect to the Yankees being buyers or sellers……certainly not buyers as not much out there that can right the ship without cleaning out the farm.
I agree with other fans that they should continue to bring up the kids, get the ML experience and see exactly what they’ve got as far as actual ML ballplayers that they will count on in the next wave.
The ridiculous trade proposals will continue to be floated and they all should just be ignored unless they have relevance to building for the future 2-3 years from now.
This certainly is a bad luck year for the Yankees as far as injuries.
Alonso and Gray for Frazier, Mateo and Rutherford lets do it
I don’t see Cashman agreeing to a trade of this sort. He’s not going to deal 3 of his top 10 prospects to the A’s for Gray and half a season of Alonso. Alonso is an All-Star this year, and he is having a fantastic season… but this is by far the best season of his career, and it’s not even close.
Yes Yankees give you 2 of their top 3 prospects for a rental and gray let’s give you the future in our outfield When it’s not even going to make a difference in the short term
The Cubs gave up their two best prospects plus two more for Quintana, who Gray has actually outpitched this season.
Another delusional Yankee fan who thinks he can have Major league talent to help win a pennant in return for low end prospects.
It’s a bit on the high end. I would say 2 of those guys listed, a 2nd tier prospect, a lottery ticket, and a PTBNL. Also, what happened to Rob Refsnyder??? Haven’t seen him in awhile.
Let’s not.
Sad news but hardly the end of the world. This news shouldn’t change the Yankees game plan going forward, Cashman doesn’t strike me as the type to panic and overpay, not so sure about his quiet so far bosses and the loud New York media.
Time to let the prospects play and try to trade Gardner and Holliday. Yanks can always resign Holliday as their DH.
Holliday is a tough sell for anything of value since he’s basically limited to dh or part time 1b. of” potential”playoff teams it’s basically the twins or maybe the rangers both of who might be out of it in two weeks
hypothetical trade if the yanks want to push
Smoak and Stroman for Rutherford, Mateo, Sheffield.
Smoak having a career year and switch hitter and stroman under team control for years and a top 40 SP.
Mateo looks blocked in the yanks infield and the depth at OF make Rutherford expendable. Threw in Sheffield because Jays have no depth at LHP and will ask for an arm.
maybe jays would take clarkin instead of sheffield
I think that’s light, especially for an in division trade.
CALEB SMITH :
Thoughts on giving this 25YO LHSP a ML shot ?
I bet he’s called up before Chance Adams. Smith is having a better overall year.
Cashman said that they knew about Pineda’s injury last Sunday when Quintana was still on the market. Since they still passed on the ChiSox demands for Quintana that tells me that Cashman won’t be pushing the panic button and selling off prospects to fill the hole left by Pineda. They may still deal prospects, but they won’t overpay on the deal.
You can (and probably should) take it a step further than even that
They filled the 1B hole not with a commodity, and instead a non-prospect/minor-league-filler type – despite having to acquire him as a stop-gap when an internal option wasn’t easily available (Short Stop Cito Culver is currently acting as the 1B at AAA)
Between that move and the lack of action regarding the rotation spot prior to other teams knowing what was going on (and subsequently inflating the asking price for the Yanks) …well it is likely safe to assume the Yankees are not buyers on anything designed to truly help them this season.
I now doubt we see the Yankees buying on anything unless it is a long-term investment or an extremely cheep stop-gap option that falls in their laps.
Also not having it is an option
The boss is missed… He wouldn’t hesitate to make the trade for A’s Gray and Alonso right now…
He would order it in fact! Ken Phelps for Jay Buhner!
Frank Costanza says it’s go time!
And the luxury tax commitment would be insane. Live in the now.
Funny how we only remember the dead for the positives they did and not the negative.
Alonso, Madson, and Gray for Frazier, Adams, Acevedo, and Fowler.
This is actually a pretty fair deal! It would suck losing adams Frazier and folwer but you gotta give to get
That’s a horrible trade if you’re the A’s. Not enough, realistically.
Pineda joins Eovaldi in the what could have been category. Buh-bye.
Where is the boss to call A’s Billy Beane to make the trade for Sonny and Alonso, right away!!!
My favorite Boss trade was not Phelps for Buehner. But the two Rickey deals. Both involved Eric Plunk going from NYY to Oak and back to NYY for some reason.
Eric Plunk always reminded me of Stephen King. Think the last trade brought Luis Polonia to NY.
Yes it did. If Tim Raines was a poor man’s Rickey and wound up in the Hall of Fame, I don’t know what that makes Polonia.
Gleybar torres and a pitching prospect for hosmer, get it done!
Lol for hosmer?