The Yankees made a series of roster moves earlier today, one of which involved placing right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga on the 15-day IL due to elbow inflammation. A pitcher going down with any sort of elbow problem is always a concern, and manager Aaron Boone spoke with reporters (including Jack Curry of the YES Network) and said Loaisiga had an MRI that did not show any structural damage.
The Yankees say Loaisiga does have some swelling in the joint though, and he won’t throw for a couple of weeks. With that in mind, even Loaisiga returns to throwing in two weeks he’ll need a bit of time to ramp up before the Yankees can call on him out of their big league bullpen, so while it doesn’t appear that this is an overly serious injury it seems Loaisiga’s stay on the IL will extend a bit beyond the minimum 15 days.
That’s a blow for a Yankees bullpen that is already without Tommy Kahnle, and has seen the usually dominant Michael King dealing with some drops in velocity. Loaisiga has been one of the best relievers in the game, and as Curry notes, owns a 1.56 ERA over his past 37 games.
Here’s some more injury notes from around the game:
- Sticking with the Yankees, and Boone said infield prospect Oswald Peraza is dealing with a hamstring issue which is why he hasn’t played the last few games for Triple-A Scranton (via Curry). While Boone says it’s not a serious injury, it probably ruled the youngster out of being called up to the big leagues when they placed Josh Donaldson on the IL today. The team opted to instead select the contract of Willie Calhoun, but it’s also possible they’d have rather kept Peraza at Triple-A getting everyday at-bats. Peraza’s gone 7-24 with three walks and seven strikeouts over his first six games with Scranton.
- The Pirates provided an update on catcher Austin Hedges today, with manager Derek Shelton telling reporters (including Justice delos Santos of MLB.com) that Hedges is “trending in the right direction.” The veteran catcher caught a bullpen today and will hit in the cage. Hedges was placed on the seven-day concussion list during the week. It’s still unclear if the Pirates will be comfortable activating Hedges immediately after the seven days are up. Hedges has appeared in three games so far, failing to tally a hit in nine plate appearances. In his absence, the Pirates called up Tyler Heineman to catch alongside regular backup Jason Delay.
- Finally, the Orioles should have veteran backstop James McCann back with the team shortly, per Roch Kubatko of MASN. McCann is yet to debut for the Orioles as he works his way back from an oblique strain. McCann has been playing in an rehab assignment at High-A, and will catch there again tonight. Kubatko suggests it’s possible that McCann is activated as early as tomorrow.
Sucks for the Yanks, but i have a hard time feeling bad for them
I agree. But that won’t stop them from being over-covered by the national media.
Babe Ruth’s 1921 bat just fetched $1.85 million. The hype is 102 years old.
They won today.
I’m a lifetime Yankees fan.
I don’t feel sorry at all.
Cashman made a team of injury prone ,past their prime, new players and even players who never played a full year. and yet they are surprised that they have so many players out.. Jonathan has never been healthy a full year like Hicks and most of the IL players never been healthy I mean you go get Effoss who you have for 5 years yet he never pitched more than 14 innings so when he pitched a full year his arm blew up like Michael King who only was a dominate reliever once, before he was a long man reliever so why did they said usually domainte? This team is a high risk high reward team.
It really pains me to defend the Yankees but Loaisiga has pitched in 107 games the past 2 seasons.
You are correct though that this is not a team built to last through 162 games plus October and the pitching has taken the biggest hits so far
Well that’s why the game is played on the field and not on paper.
Playing the game on paper is pulp fiction.
You went medieval on his ass.
Using 6 pitchers virtually every game for six months is a recipe for blown elbows.
You have a good point. The Yankee high visible starters like 3B Josh Donaldson, OF Aaron Hicks, CF Harrison Bader, OF Giancarlo Stanton to go along with OF Aaron Judge and SP Luis Severino have had poor health history.
It’s early and pitchers are still building up. I’m not concerned at all with Michael King’s very slight velo dip.
Brito has been a huge surprise for New York early on this season. Once their rotation is fully healthy, I could see them moving Brito to the bullpen, which would help them quite a bit. Regardless of their early injuries, the Yankees are off to a very good start and should contend for the AL East unless they have a couple of catastrophic injuries (Cole, Judge, etc).
They have enough pen arms when Rodon and Severino comes back. Option him back to AAA to continue building him up as a starter. Michael King is their multi-innings reliever. Brito will be the first choice for spot starting. He could take over for Severino next season if the Yankees chose not to resign him.
If they come back. Deivi Garcia is moving to the pen. Smart move. At 5’9″ he’s an elf.
Loaisigi is a 97+ mph fastball guy isn’t he? It cannot be normal on elbows to throw that hard consistently. I do miss the old days of nearly 30 years ago now that only a dozen guys in the entire MLB threw over 95mph and most were closers.
Too much emphasis on the radar gun. Whitey Ford used to say he could yank the front foot of any hitter in the American League. That’s pitching. Not throwing.
The YANKEES win!
The-UH-uh-UH-uh-UH YANKEES… Win!
Brito has earned his spot and it would be foolish to send him down. The Yankees are bringing in youth and by next season the injury prone players will be gone.
Take back what you said about Kyle Higashioka
TAKE IT BACK!!