Yankees Injuries: Top prospect Estevan Florial suffers fractured wrist

Yankees top overall prospect Estevan Florial suffered a displaced fracture in his right wrist on Saturday after crashing into the center field wall trying to make a catch. It’s another tough break for Florial who fractured the hamate bone in his right hand last May and was enjoying an outstanding spring this season.

Injuries continue to plague the Yankees this spring with Florial becoming the latest victim over the weekend. The big league roster is already set to begin the season without Didi Gregorius, Luis Severino, and Aaron Hicks and now Florial could miss at least the first month of the season for Double-A Trenton.

This was supposed to be a huge year for Florial as he continues his development on the path to the big leagues so hopefully, this won’t set him back too much. Last season the surgery on his hamate bone limited him to only 75 games with Class A-Advanced Tampa and with another injury to that same right wrist/hand area there’s no telling how long he could be out.

Florial wasn’t going to make the major league roster out of camp, but losing him to an injury is still a big blow because he was so impressive this spring. In 13 games with the big club, Florial hit .355 in 31 at-bats with two doubles, a home run, and five RBI. He also showed improved plate discipline with a .429 OBP and great base running instincts with five stolen bases on five attempts.

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The 21-year-old is ranked as the 57th best prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline and despite another injury setback his future still looks very bright. This spring he showed he has the potential to become a true five-tool player and played so well that some believed he could work his way up to the big leagues later this summer.

Now that he’s expected to at least miss most of April that might be hard to pull off, but he certainly turned some heads this spring and caught the eyes of the coaching staff. Whenever he returns to the field Florial should be able to accelerate rather quickly up the ranks in the system with his skillset, as long as he can stay healthy.

Obviously, there’s never a good time to go down with an injury but the good news is that it happened before the season. If he can return at some point in May he’ll still have plenty of time to conquer Double-A and potentially earn a late-season call-up to Triple-A or even a September call-up to the Bronx.