Michael Pineda Out 3-4 Weeks With Lat Strain

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees have played just under thirty games this season. You know what that means – it’s officially New York Yankees injury season! Actually, the Yankees have done abnormally well with key injuries thus far. Unfortunately, they may have just hit their first real snag of the season; Mr. Michael Pineda.

Pineda had to stop a simulated game Tuesday after feeling tightness in his lat. He was determined to have a Grade-1 strain and will be shut down for 10 days. Unfortunately, He will miss close to a month after having to gain his strength back after the shutdown.

You may have heard, most have by now, Pineda is currently under suspension for sheer stupidity. After almost being caught with pine tar against the Red Sox a couple weeks ago, he forced their hand into getting him ejected after making his neck look like a bad Nutella advertisement. Despite the pine tar on the neck, Pineda was not too embarrassed to quit baseball and had been staying in shape until this injury.

2014 is Pineda’s first actually active season with the Yankees after being injured for all of 2011 and 2012. He was off to a strong start on the year, posting a 1.83 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 19.2 innings of work on the season. The lat is a new injury for Pineda, so hopefully it won’t linger into the later stages of the season. The Yankees have had very strong pitching this year, and losing Pineda for a majority of the season would hurt the team’s World Series chances tremendously.