Yankees: Jacoby Ellsbury undergoes hip surgery, out 6 months

On Monday Jacoby Ellsbury’s chances of a comeback this season officially came to an end after he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left hip to repair a torn labrum. The Yankees say the recovery time will be approximately six months.

Ellsbury has been plagued by injuries throughout his Yankees tenure and throughout his career in general. After weeks and months of wondering what exactly was wrong with him, his season ended on Monday without it ever really beginning.

Today’s news serves as another reminder to Yankee fans and GM Brian Cashman that Ellsbury is arguably the worst free agent signing in team history. Even when he was healthy he never lived up to his massive contract and never resembled the impact player he was during some of his prime seasons with the Red Sox.

Ellsbury’s on year five of a seven-year, $153 million deal which has him making a salary of over $21 million this season. Fortunately for the Yankees, they took out a big insurance policy on Ellsbury and now that he’ll miss the entire season they will be reimbursed $15,857,142 million according to Forbes.

That’s good news for the Yankees, even though they could have used a healthy Ellsbury a lot this season. The Yankees outfield has had several key players go down with injuries throughout the season and certainly had a spot for Ellsbury to earn some playing time in their absence. The same goes for Clint Frazier, but he has been dealing with post-concussion symptoms on and off all season and he’s currently on the DL.

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Both players would’ve been options to join the team right now with Aaron Judge still out with a fractured wrist but instead, the team’s fourth outfielder right now is journeyman Shane Robinson. It’s a shame for both players, especially Frazier because he’s desperate to get back on the field and stay in the big leagues for good.

Hopefully, he can return from the DL at some point before Judge does because he can really help this team and deepen the lineup when he’s in there. You would assume Ellsbury is just as desperate to play, but he’s well past his prime and probably wouldn’t have made the kind of impact Frazier could have.

The news also put an end to anyone thinking Ellsbury wasn’t really hurt and the Yankees wanted him away from the team. Once again he’s really hurt and has a long road to recovery ahead of him.

Who knows what the future holds for Ellsbury in New York because this injury will only make it harder to somehow get rid of him and his contract. If the recovery goes as planned he should be back in time for spring training next season and there could be an opening on the roster for him as the fourth outfielder.

I know most fans would rather him stay away for good and never wear the pinstripes again, but if he ever gets healthy the Yankees don’t have much of a choice other than keeping him.