Yankees: Gary Sanchez headed to the DL with groin injury

On Sunday the Yankees not only suffered one of their worst losses of the season but they also lost their All-Star catcher Gary Sanchez in the process to a groin injury.

Just when it looked like Sanchez was finally about to take off offensively and put his slump behind him he’ll now be sidelined on the 10-day DL with a groin strain. Kyle Higashioka will be called up to replace Sanchez on the Yankees 25-man roster to serve as Austin Romine’s backup.

Today’s news should come as no surprise to anybody who watched Sunday’s game after Sanchez pulled up and grabbed his right groin while trying to beat out a double play in the 10th inning. Once he left the game we all knew a trip to the DL would follow. The Yankees ended up losing 7-6 in walk-off fashion to suffer their first series sweep all season.

We’ll have to wait and see how long Sanchez will be out but given the timing of the injury, he could be sidelined until after the All-Star break.

This is a big blow to the Yankees lineup no matter how much Sanchez had been struggling over the past month. Despite his lackluster batting average this season, he was still providing plenty of production with 14 home runs and 41 RBI. As I said he’d been swinging the bat much better of late, but any momentum he had has now been crushed with this injury.

Hopefully, he’ll only be out for the next 10-15 days and he can return right before the break, but even if that’s the case, Sanchez will still miss some big games coming up on the schedule. The Yankees will especially miss him this weekend when the Red Sox come to town with three left-handed starters set to take the mound.

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The Yanks should be ok with Romine stepping in, but there will come a time over these next few weeks where Sanchez’s bat will clearly be missed. Romine is 3 for his last 23, but for the most part, he’s been outstanding in what has been a breakout offensive season for him. However, he’s no Gary Sanchez.

He isn’t close to being the kind of power threat Sanchez is in the middle of the order and that will likely show now that he’ll get consistent playing time. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of power in this Yankee lineup so Romine doesn’t have to try and replace the kind of production Sanchez brings to the table. All the Yankees can hope for is that he continues to play solid defense and picks up timely hits like has all season.

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Let’s hope for a very speedy recovery from Sanchez because the Yankees need him healthy in order to win their division. They’ll need him, even more, to win a world championship come October. It’s been a down season for Sanchez up to this point but this injury could provide him with a fresh start and a chance to remind everybody why he’s still one of the most dangerous hitters in the game today.

Get well soon El Gary.