YANKEES BREAKING NEWS: Prado Done for ’14

Aug 19, 2014; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Martin Prado (14) hits a two-RBI double against the Houston Astros during the sixth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

This may be the deciding blow to the Yankees final playoff hopes. Meredith Marakovits reports, via her Twitter page, that surging New York Yankees outfielder Martin Prado has been rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. The surgery, which roughly takes a minimum of two weeks to recover from, would all but end Prado’s 2014 season.

Prado was brought over at the trade deadline from the Arizona Diamondbacks for Yankees minor league slugger Peter O’Brien. Prado was struggling to get it going in his second season with the Snakes. He was batting just .270 with five home runs and a .317 on base percentage in the desert. A  jack-of-all-trades type player who can play any position in the field and bat anywhere in the lineup, Prado immediately jumped into the Yankees depleted lineup and split his time evenly between the outfield and third base for the Bronx Bombers, playing 12 games in the outfield and 11 at third. In his 37 game debut in pinstripes Prado absolutely tore it up. He batted .316 with seven home runs, 16 RBI and nine doubles.

Prado’s presence in the Yankees line-up will certainly be missed. The 2014 Yankees have been a team that has found it hard to produce many runs at all, sitting in last place in the AL in that department. Losing arguably their hottest hitter and a guy that has accounted for 34 runs himself over his first 37 games in the Bronx is detrimental. Derek Jeter‘s final days may be coming to a close without October baseball after all.

UPDATE (12:30 PM): #PROMOTEPIRELA! Martin Prado has officially been moved to the 60-day DL ending his season. The move allows the Yankees to call up Jose Pirela. The second baseman had a monster year at Triple-A as a mid-season and year-end All Star and was June’s International League’s Player of the Month. He was set to become a minor league free agent at season’s end so a strong performance down the stretch could lock up a 40-man roster spot for 2015. Pirela batted .305 with 10 home runs, 60 RBI and 15 steals as the RailRiders leadoff hitter in 2014.