The Yankees are placing righty Jonathan Loaisiga on the IL with a right shoulder strain, per a team announcement. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, that the strain is in Loaisiga’s rotator cuff and he won’t throw for at least 10 days. (Twitter links) Fellow right-handed Albert Abreu has been recalled to take Loaisiga’s place on the roster.
This is very unfortunate news for both Loaisiga and the team, as the righty is having the best season of his career so far and has been one of the most valuable pitchers on the team. Through 68 innings out of the Yankees’ bullpen this year, he has an ERA of 2.25. His 24.2% strikeout rate is actually close to league average, but his 5.5% walk rate and 61.3% groundball rate are both excellent. On the season, he’s been worth 2.2 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, third-most among Yankees pitchers, behind Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery, and tied with Josh Hader for the most among all relievers in baseball.
It’s unclear exactly how much time he will miss, but with less than a month left in the season, there’s not a lot of wiggle room remaining. If he is to miss “at least” 10 days, that means the best-case scenario would see him start throwing again September 15th. At that point, he would presumably have to throw a bullpen or two to assess his health and perhaps go on a rehab assignment before returning to the big-league club.
The Yankees are 7 1/2 games behind the Rays in the AL East but are currently holding the first AL Wild Card spot, half a game ahead of the Red Sox and 4 1/2 ahead of the Athletics and Mariners.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
The Orioles wore out the Lasagna
whyhayzee
Well, I predicted this:
Back when he was approaching 60, it was clear to me that they were using him too much. But the yankee fans just yelled at me.
There is no joy in being right about injuries. I hate this.
cndb41a
You are a genius
whyhayzee
whyhayzee
August 23, 2021
This is problematic. They are overusing Green, Loaisiga and Luetge. This will come crashing down if they can’t find other useful pieces to share the load. You can’t ask those three guys to pitch 80 innings and have anything left for the postseason. That’s how Torre lost his job.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Torre lost his job bc the clubhouse wasn’t responding to him anymore and started not to get along with Cashman. Not solely for ruining reliever Scott Proctor’s career. It happens after 12 years managing the same team.
whyhayzee
In 2001-2007, except for two of those years, he would use 3 relievers way more than any others, typically 80 innings or even more. The team failed in every post season. Mo failed in two of those postseasons. Overused. Plain and simple.
YankeesBleacherCreature
That was typical of middle relievers usage in that era. Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton, Mo, and Betances. Averaging 70+ games was a norm for good MLB relievers. It wasn’t exclusive to just the Yankees. Mo failed bc he’s human. Sorry but I don’t buy your narrative.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Still impressive for a 60 year-old MLB pitcher.
YankeesBleacherCreature
Nooooo!!!
mpc5150
This is a potentially big loss. Loaisaga has been the one consistent in an otherwise inconsistent back of the bullpen for the Yankees.
Dorothy_Mantooth
The 162 game MLB regular season is grueling. These things happen all the time and the Yankees should be fine whether he’s on the IL for 10 games or out for the rest of the season. If they can’t overcome the loss of one bullpen pitcher then they don’t deserve a playoff spot.
rocky7
Absolutely true, but losing “high leverage” relievers is a bit different than just losing a bullpen piece that you bring in early in games and hope they hold the opposition……and its actually the 2nd high leverage piece they have lost….Britton was the first, and coupled with the mystery of Chapman lately, this does hurt and will cause a re-shuffling of their bullpen assets.
Remember, while some said that Lasagna was pitching too many innings, the same can be said of Green who undoubtedly will assume the closers role or at least be their #1 Fireman in high leverage situations. Time to bring up the kids and let them learn through the baptism of fire in a pennant race!
162 games are grueling and good teams do find ways to overcome these types of issues!
mlbnyyfan
This was definitely expected since I have been saying all along the Yankees need starting pitchers that can give them length.
cndb41a
You are a genius
rmhtwo23
Next man up….Albert Abreu has looked good. Hope he can pick up some of the slack.
dave frost nhlpa
German and Severino….pick up the slack.
Where is Gil? They were converting him to pitch in relief as well.
Ronk325
German is scheduled for his 2nd bullpen session tomorrow so he could be back by the end of the month but it doesn’t look like Sevy will be make any big league contributions this year. Gil should definitely be up with the Yankees right now though. He should be the guy piggybacking off of guys like Kluber and Cortes
gruber63
Gil started for Scranton on Friday, pitched 5 shutout innings. Ridings is on IL. Holmes has been lights out since trade. Heaney stinks, should’ve kept Junk and used him instead.
Ducky Buckin Fent
I missed Ridings going to the IL. He’s a great story.
& that kid was a blast to watch: 4-seam, 2-seam, & cut FB’s all in the 92-100 mph range. Mercy. That’ll play.
yanks2323
DFA Heaney, he’s awful!
YankeesBleacherCreature
Sadly, they won’t as Kluber hasn’t been himself and Sevy is still inching back.
CravenMoorehead
Huge loss. He was one of the few consistent relievers out of the bullpen. The inconsistency from Chapman, Britton, Wilson and Green this season has made Loaisiga that much more valuable.
YankeesBleacherCreature
I’ll disagree about Green. His stats fall right in line with his career numbers. He had a great first-half but fell back to earth. But yes to Britton, Chappy, Wilson, and O’Day. Cortes’ pornstache is the real MVP this season.
CravenMoorehead
Absolutely. I’ll tell you who isn’t the MVP is that jabroni Heaney. I’ve never hated a pitcher on the Yankees as much as him right now. He stunk up the Field of Dreams game and he was worse today blowing the game against Baltimore.
dasit
green has given up some absolutely soul-crashing home runs which makes his overall performance feel worse than it is
brucenewton
Not surprised, yanks work him hard. September is when the yank pen starts to melt from another season of overuse.
dasit
this stinks because aaron boone is breathtakingly bad at in-game bullpen management. i look forward to him throwing andrew heaney into high leverage situations
whyhayzee
What was especially rewarding about yesterday’s game was the pathetic showboating by sanchez when he hit the grand slam. He’s such a dork. I’m sure the Orioles took note of his crap and couldn’t wait to get their payback. What goes around comes around.
Ducky Buckin Fent
Oh, gosh no.
Not a player being excited about a grand slam!? The sheer audacity, uh?
I’ve lived a number of places. I’ve even been out of the county numerous times. Yankee haters are a dime/dozen. But I find some of you Yankee hating baseball “fans” on the MLBTR board to be so entertaining.
Ya know?
You fellas claim to loathe us. Yet you watch every single game we play! Is the irony lost on you? Because it’s rich, bud.
whyhayzee
He wasn’t excited at all. That’s actually refreshing. He acted like a dork. Basically said f u to the other team with his body language. That’s bs. All this from a 30 second video easily accessible on mlb.com. I don’t watch any games any more. I check scores periodically and watch highlight videos. That’s about all I can stomach any more. Waiting for the next over muscled player to go down in a heap. Not fun any more. I grew up watching great athletes play great baseball. Now it’s borderline professional wrestling. Give me a break. Excitement? Joy? Celebration? Bring it on. Acting like a dork? No thank you.
Ducky Buckin Fent
Ah.
Pining for the days of Feller & Boudreau are ya? That fits. You guys should just start your own blog.
Ya know: Guys Who Loathe the Yankees & Modern Baseball Too.
To recap. You watched a Gary Sanchez highlight of a slam. Didn’t care for his comportment. Then proceeded to post about what a “dork” he is. Correct? Again, I hope the irony of whom is *actually* the “dork” in all this really is, is not lost on you.
But, hey! Your Browns might be good. So there’s that.
whyhayzee
I’m thinking of Jeter and Mo. Two guys who weren’t all bulked up, played injury free for years, and never bothered with showing up the opposition.
Sanchez is a dork.
gruber63
Kriske implodes again, why do they keep bringing this guy up? He’s worthless.
Ducky Buckin Fent
Wish I could answer that, @Gruber.
Actually…I wish we would’ve stuck the sox with him & held on to Whitlock. Alas.
gruber63
Ditto on Whitlock, @Ducky.
Even if BOS didn’t pick him via rule 5 another team might’ve taken him instead. We will never know if Kriske was exposed another team would’ve took a flier on him. We need to thank Whitlock for blowing the save vs TB so Yanks can keep the slim lead. Yanks are 2-7 last 9, it’s embarrassing that Halos and O’s took the series from them. Yanks are back playing boring baseball including 5 GIDP in 2nd games vs LAA, it’s fortunate that the Jays are still 3 back but closing fast. Yanks need to get their head out of their butts and play better.
gruber63
Left hamstring tightness. Hope he won’t miss much time or Yanks are dead.
whyhayzee
Last outing was 116 pitches, totally unnecessary overuse. Plus, BMI > 25, makes injuries more likely. Not to mention the “no foreign substances” effect. Just a perfect storm.