Yankees: Didi Gregorius injured with bruised left heel, could land on the DL

The Yankees finished off an important series sweep of the Blue Jays on Sunday but in the process, they lost another key member to their lineup. Didi Gregorius left the game with a bruised left heel and the injury could force him to land on the DL.

The Yankees offense dominated over the weekend against a depleted Blue Jay’s pitching staff scoring 28 runs during the three-game sweep. They scored six runs in the first inning of Sunday’s win but the injury to Didi sucked the fun out of the big series sweep.

After lining a hard groundball to Devon Travis into the hole between first and second Didi raced to first to beat the throw for an RBI infield single. Because of the angle Travis was throwing from in shallow right field Didi awkwardly collided with the first basemen Kendrys Morales as he beat the play at the bag. He stayed in the game for another inning and a half before he was replaced by Ronald Torres prior to the top of the third.

The tests showed nothing broken in the injured heel but they did reveal significant swelling that will likely sideline Didi for multiple games. Manager Aaron Boone said the swelling could lead to Didi being placed on the DL in his post-game press conference.

This is obviously the last thing the Yankees need right now with two big bats already out of the lineup in Judge and Sanchez. The timetable on Judge is still unclear and Sanchez probably won’t be back until the end of the month at the earliest. Should Didi miss a week or two, the Yankees will likely turn to Gleyber Torres at short and split the playing time at second between Ronald Torreyes and Neil Walker.

More from Yanks Go Yard

• Mets stealing New York Post’s entire Yankees offseason plan is hilarious
• Predicting Yankees-Diamondbacks LF trade package after Ken Rosenthal update
• Yankees add to championship core with Wilmer Difo signing
• Aaron Judge’s ‘breadcrumbs’ showed he was never leaving Yankees, has more moves in mind
• Creating a Yankees-Bryan Reynolds trade package after latest Pirates update

They could also call-up Tyler Wade to play either short or second at times but it won’t be to play every day because he’s really struggled offensively at the big league level. We saw Torreyes do an excellent job stepping in for both Didi and Starlin Castro for an extended period last season, so he should get the majority of the at-bats since Walker’s also playing some right field.

He’ll do a fine job if this is only a short DL stint. However, there’s no way he or anyone else can duplicate the kind of offensive production Didi brings to the table and the stellar defense he provides in the field.

This hurts even more because Didi had been swinging a hot bat after a brutal month of May. He’s been so much more consistent over these last two and a half months as he’s played much more like the leading MVP candidate he was during April. Losing him for any time leaves a huge hole in the heart of the order because he’s the best left-handed power source in the Yankee lineup.

The good news is the Yankees do have capable backups mentioned above and their remaining August schedule is very favorable. They still have Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar who are both red hot right now and Torres and Greg Bird seem close to breaking out of their own slumps. They should be able to manage without Didi for 10-14 days, but him missing any more time than that could have serious implications on where the Yankees end up in the Wild Card race.

With the division likely out of reach the Yankees could have used this time to focus more on getting healthy and securing home field in the Wild Card game for a second straight season. Now with Didi, Judge and Sanchez all out, they might run into some trouble holding off the A’s or Astros in the standings.

They have a four-game lead over the A’s entering play today and have a big series looming at Oakland in two weeks. Hopefully, by then at the latest Didi can return.