Yankees Injury Report: When will the outfield be back at full strength?

After Aaron Judge went down with an oblique injury this past weekend the Yankees top three outfielders heading into the season are now all on the injured list. It’s hard to fathom how much the team as a whole has been ravaged by injuries this early into the season and the scary thing is there’s no telling when they’ll be at full strength again.

The Yankees currently have 13 players on the injured list and according to Michael Bauman of The Ringer those players combined to post a WAR of 32.8 a season ago. That’s a major league record for most WAR on the DL at one time and yet the Yanks have somehow managed to start the season with a very respectable 13-10 record.

Over their last eight games, the Yanks are 7-1 and have been carried by some excellent starting pitching. They’ve also had some unsung heroes in the lineup who have made the most of their opportunities of late in the form of Gio Urshela, Austin Romine and Mike Tacuhman. Former top prospect Clint Frazier has played the biggest role during this stretch as he’s finally been given the chance to play every day and has blossomed into a breakout star.

Frazier has been outstanding but during Monday night’s 4-3 win in 14 innings over the Angels he had an injury scare himself when he sprained his ankle sliding back into second on a pickoff play. He stayed in the game but was reportedly limping around the locker room during the post game and told the media he was very sore. However, Frazier said that after missing the majority of last season dealing with post-concussion symptoms he was going to do everything in his power to try to play through the sprain.

The Yankees need Frazier more than ever to stay on the field because so far he’s been their most productive hitter with a team-leading .324 AVG, six home runs, and 17 RBI. Even with Gary Sanchez set to return on Wednesday, the Yanks can’t afford to lose Frazier because the rest of their injured outfielders are still weeks away from returning.

Aaron Boone said on Sunday that Judge’s oblique strain is “pretty significant” so we can expect him to miss at least the next month and maybe more. Judge is arguably the most irreplaceable player on the roster and losing him is a massive blow but if Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks can return relatively soon they should help weather the storm until he comes back.

The problem is that while both of them are expected to return before Judge the timetables for when that might happen are still very much unclear. Hicks has been dealing with a lower back strain since March 1st and he still hasn’t played in any rehab games. Considering he pretty much missed all of Spring Training he’s going to have to play at least a couple weeks for one of the minor league affiliates before we see him back atop the Yankees batting order.

Originally he was only supposed to be shut down for a week after he started feeling back discomfort early in camp but now here we are almost two months later and he’s still out. Hicks has been hitting off a tee and took batting practice on the field last Thursday, however, there still hasn’t been an announcement on when he’ll start playing in rehab games.

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

As for Stanton, he’s been out since April 1st with a biceps strain and probably won’t be back until Mid-May at the earliest. There was hope that he’d be able to return before the end of April but that looks highly unlikely now because he too is going to need a lengthy rehab assignment according to Boone.

It’s hard to say who between Hicks and Stanton the Yankees miss more right now because either one of them would be a big upgrade over both Tauchman and Brett Gardner. That’s not a knock on them it’s just the truth.

Right now the Yankee lineup is a gritty bunch that’s been scraping out some wins by playing good team baseball. They’ve played much better than expected but eventually, you have to figure they’re going to hit a lull and the need for reinforcements will become even more urgent.

Getting Sanchez back Wednesday will definitely help and if the starting pitching can continue to carry the load that will help even more in the coming weeks. However if by this time next month the Yanks are still without Stanton and Hicks it’ll be hard to consider them championship contenders like we all thought they’d be heading into the season.