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Yankees Editorial: Ranking the Biggest Injury Concerns Entering 2015

By Michael Cambria

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It’s no secret that a majority of the 2015 New York Yankees 40-man roster will be held together with bandages and patched together with gauze. After all, the Yankees were hit harder by the injury bug in 2014 than any other team in baseball, and many of the key players still on their current roster including Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury and nearly their entire pitching staff just to name a few, suffered significant injuries and found themselves shelved on the disabled list. Some players were forced to undergo season-ending surgeries while others were sidelined for large chunks of the season at a time. 

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If the Yankees have any hopes of contending in the upcoming season and avoiding a third straight year of no baseball in October, they’ll need to stay healthy.

Here’s a look at their biggest injury concerns as we approach the 2015 season:

1. Masahiro Tanaka

Two September starts, a September 21st win against the Toronto Blue Jays in which Tanaka pitched 5.1 innings and gave up just one earned run on five hits, and an absolute nightmare performance on September 27th against the Red Sox in which Tanaka failed to make it out of the second inning before giving up five earned runs on seven hits, is the only bit of information that the Yankees have in regards to where their ace is after partially tearing his right UCL in his throwing arm.

The Yankees have extremely high hopes that a few months of rest back home in his native Japan will allow Tanaka to return to the Cy Young–caliber form, which he showed in his first 17 starts of an All-Star rookie season. Former St. Louis Cardinals’ ace Chris Carpenter is a good example of a pitcher who remarkably continued to have success after suffering the same injury Tanaka had, but the Yankees team doctors can’t afford to let their guards down. Tanaka is the work horse of the Yankees rotation, and should he succumb to further injuries, the Yankees will be in for a rude awakening.

2. Mark Teixeira

Over the past two seasons, injuries have taken quite the toll on the aging first-baseman. In 2014 he recorded career-lows with a .216 average and an OBP of only .313 through just 123 games played. In 2013, Teixeira was limited to just 15 games. Fortunately, he was still able to provide some power last season, as he notched a total of 22 ‘tex-messages’ and 62 RBIs.

If the Yankees are going to be contenders in 2015, they’ll need Teixeira to step-up and carry the offense by returning to his true form and hovering around his career averages as a .273 hitter with close to 30 home runs and 100 RBIs.

3. Michael Pineda

Michael Pineda has been battling with a series of shoulder and elbow injuries since coming over to the Yanks in the January 2012 ‘blockbuster’ trade with the Seattle Mariners, and last year he missed over three months due to a muscle strain in his pitching shoulder.

Fortunately, Michael Pineda did finally make it to the big league mound in the Bronx last year before being injured, and the little bit of time he spent in the rotation was nothing short of dominant. He posted an impressive 1.89 ERA and 0.83 WHIP through 13 starts. When he’s healthy, Michael Pineda can flat-out be a game-changer.

You can’t realistically expect him to maintain his 2014 performance over a full season, but the Yankees would certainly be happy if he can maintain an ERA under 4.00 and log 180+ innings in 2015.

4. Carlos Beltran

Beltran is hoping to bounce back from an abysmal 2014 season in which he played with a bone spur in his right elbow. He had surgery in the off-season to remove the spur and is on-track to return 100 percent healthy for the start of spring training. Beltran did get off to a hot start in 2014, but once the bone spur flared up, he had little to no impact in terms of offensive production.The Yankees re-signed outfielder Chris Young to make up for Beltran’s lackluster defense, which should allow Beltran to focus all of his energy on hitting as a designated hitter. Hopefully this, combined with a healthy elbow, means he will produce like he did before getting hurt going forward.

5. C.C. Sabathia

In his first five seasons with the New York Yankees, Sabathia hurled a total of 1,116.0 innings, continuing to log inning after inning, after posting similar work loads with the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Indians prior to joining the Evil Empire. The southpaw never once complained; he was a gamer, and he rewarded the Yankees with a 2009 World Series ring and three A.L. All-Star selections.

Unfortunately, all those innings finally caught up to Sabathia, and his body began to fall apart. In 2013 he posted a career-high 4.78 ERA, while giving up over 100 earned runs for the first time in his career since his sophomore season in 2002. In 2014, his season was cut short after eight starts before being forced to shut it down and go under the knife for season-ending arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

Given the number of other injury-related questions and the lack of depth surrounding the Yankees starting rotation, they need every bit of C.C Sabathia back healthy if they want to compete in 2015.

6. Alex Rodriguez

Aside from being forced to sit out for an entire year due to his involvement in the Biogenesis-PED scandal, Alex Rodriguez has also been dealing with ailing hips since 2008. Consequently, 2008 has been the last year in which A-Rod batter over .300 and recorded more than 150 hits. Though he may still have a great glove and an above average arm, he hasn’t played baseball in over a year and his days as an everyday infielder are numbered.

In my opinion, the Yankees are planning to platoon A-Rod at DH with Carlos Beltran and Garrett Jones. If so, they’ll have a deadly trio of designated-hitters/ bench players who can tattoo the ball from both sides of the plate, and give manager Joe Girardi a ton of options. In order for the Yankees to contend in 2015, A-Rod will have to remain healthy and keep this trio a strength for the Bronx Bombers.

Honorable mention goes out to Jacoby Ellsbury and his history of lower body injuries, Chase Headley, and Ivan Nova, who’s currently on the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery.

All in all, let’s hope the Yankees team doctors are less busy in 2015 than they were in 2014!

Next: Is Carlos Beltran The Key To The Yankees' Season?

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