Yankees need their All-Stars to carry the load as injuries continue to pile up

Since the start of spring training, the injury bug has hit the Yankees more than any other team in baseball. That’s carried over into the regular season as the Yanks have already seen three more regulars land on the injured list in Giancarlo Stanton, Miguel Andujar and most recently Troy Tulowitzki.

Before Monday’s game against the Tigers, the Yankees announced that both Giancarlo Staton and Miguel Andujar were heading to the 10-day IL. They joined an injured list that already includes Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Dellin Betances, CC Sabathia, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Luis Severino.

Stanton has a biceps strain and is hopeful to return at some point later in the month. The news for Andujar, however, is much worse after it was revealed he has a small labrum tear in his right shoulder. The team is hopeful he can rehab the injury and return to the lineup but there’s a chance he’ll need season-ending surgery.

As if things couldn’t get any worse the Yanks lost their starting shortstop during Wednesday’s loss against Detroit after Tulowitzki left the game early with a calf strain. The oft-injured veteran was signed to fill in for Didi until he returns but he’s now on the IL which led to the Yankees calling up IF Thairo Estrada, the only other healthy infielder on the 40-man roster.

With all these impact players sidelined right now, the Yankees need guys to step up and the three players who specifically come to mind are Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Gleyber Torres. These three former All-Stars more than anyone have to carry the load and produce if the Yanks are going to stay afloat until they get some reinforcements.

The reason being is they’re all capable of doing so. They’re three of the most talented hitters on the roster and when they get hot they can carry the offense on any given day. Judge is an obvious choice to be singled out because he’s widely considered the best player on the team and he’s a perennial MVP candidate.

He’s gotten off to a decent start from an average standpoint hitting .269 and has a .406 OBP, but he’s yet to hit a home run and he’s striking out at a very high rate once again. Through seven games Judge has 14 K’s so he’s averaging two a game. Before the season is all said and done you know Judge is going to get hot and hit a ton of home runs but with all the injuries the Yankees are going through they need him to break out relatively soon.

Sanchez, unlike Judge, has found the power stroke early on in the season with three home runs in his first six games played, including one on Thursday. After a miserable 2018 season, Sanchez has come into 2019 looking more like the offensive force he was during 2016-17. With all these injured players not really close to returning anytime soon it’s crucial that he keeps it going.

Even though his average isn’t where he wants it to be at .217 his OPS is .917 and the overall quality of his at-bats have been very solid. Sanchez could easily have five home runs if the weather was warmer and the balls were carrying more at the Stadium last week as he hit a couple of fly balls that were caught just steps in front of the outfield wall. He’s also had a pair of lineouts that have registered up to 110 mph so the point is that he’s barreling up a lot of balls and looks a lot better than his numbers might dictate.

With Stanton and Andujar currently out now is the time for Sanchez to re-establish himself as one of the premier power hitters in the league and in the Yankee lineup. He’s hit clean up over the past two days and that’s where he should stay for the foreseeable future. I would say that he should be moved up to hit third given the struggles Luke Voit is going through but that’s a spot where I’d like to see Gleyber Torres get the opportunity to hit.

Torres joined Sanchez on the home run train in Thursday’s win over the O’s but one-upped him with a two-homer day. After losing the series to Detroit in the Bronx Torres stepped up big time to open up the first road trip of the season and put the team on his back by picking up four hits and four RBI. He started his day with a solo shot for his first of the season, but it was his go-ahead three-run blast with the Yankees down one in the sixth inning that put them up for good.

After his incredible rookie season in 2018, the 22-year-old Torres looks primed to have an even bigger sophomore campaign and potentially become the superstar many believe he’s destined to be. Even though Luke Voit snapped out his slump a bit with a big three-run home run in Thursday’s win Torres should still take his spot in the three-hole moving forward.

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I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that right now Torres is the best all-around hitter on the team. His .357 BA along with his team-leading 10 hits would back that up. Usually, the best hitter bats third and with all the injuries the Yankees are going through there’s no reason why Torres shouldn’t be hitting in the top third of the order. As proven in Thursday’s win Gleyber can carry an offense to a win single-handedly so he needs to be put in a spot where he can get as many at-bats as possible.

Gleyber is stepping up right now and if the Yankees are going to weather this storm of injuries and start winning some games they need him to continue to lead the way. They also need Sanchez to keep up with his solid start and finally, they need Judge to cut down on the strikeouts and play like the MVP we know he can be.

If they can do that the Yankees are going to be fine in the short term. Because before you know it they’re going to be close to full strength again and once that happens this team will really take off.