New York Yankees News: Checking In on Dustin Ackley

When the Yankees lone trade deadline acquisition Dustin Ackley was placed on the disabled list with a lumbar strain on August 4th, General Manager Brian Cashman didn’t rule out the possibility of losing him for the remainder of the season.

Fortunately, that might not be the case. According to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, Dustin Ackley said that his rehabilitation program is going well, and that he doesn’t believe that will be need season-ending surgery.

As a matter of fact, Ackley had been throwing some long toss for the past couple of days, and he finally took his first swings since being placed on the DL yesterday afternoon. According to Ackley, his first set of swings were off a batting tee, and he’s likely to hit live pitching today.

The 27-year old utility man told Kuty that he feels pain-free. Interestingly enough, the pain first started to affect Ackley just two days after the Yankees traded two of their prospects for him, which is an eerily similar situation to what happened when they acquired Michael Pineda from the Mariners back in 2012.

Anyway, it’s still undecided as to when Dustin Ackley could rejoin the Yankees roster. It’s likely that he’ll need two-to-three minor league rehab assignments before being deemed ready, but even so, the Yankees are preparing to bring up a crop of minor league prospects when rosters expand to 40 men in September, so it’s unclear as to how much playing time Ackley will even get once he does return.

Ackley was brought in as a left-handed bat that was supposed to play well with the short porch in Yankee stadium as well as providing backup in the outfield and first base. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when he doest eventually return.

Gregory Bird is doing just fine filling in at first base for Mark Teixeira and once September rolls around, the Yankees might be inclined to give a minor leaguer like Aaron Judge or Slade Heathcott a shot at backing up in the outfield over Dustin Ackley.

In my opinion, Dustin Ackley will be limited to a defensive substitution upon returning, but I guess time will tell.

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