Yankees Injury Report: Dellin Betances resumes throwing program

Dellin Betances is still weeks away from rejoining the Yankees bullpen but he made his first step towards a return on Monday when he resumed his throwing program.

Betances was placed on the IL out of Spring Training with a right rotator cuff impingement and has yet to appear in a game for the Yankees so far this season. While rehabbing the injury Betances suffered a setback after an MRI revealed a pre-existing bone spur in his shoulder. This led to him receiving a cortisone shot on April 13th and GM Brian Cashman announcing that he would be sidelined for at least another 6 to 7 weeks.

The Yankees shut Betances down from throwing up until Monday when he resumed his throwing program and made 25 tosses on flat ground at 60 feet. According to Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com Betances felt very encouraged about his recovery but added that unless he becomes a superhero there’s no way he’s going to be able to return by the end of May.

Dellin will reportedly continue to play catch every other day and if all goes well it’s possible we could see him back in the Yankees pen by late June. However, despite his successful first day back throwing, clearly, Betances still has a lot of hurdles to overcome before we get a better idea of an exact timetable for his return.

In the meantime, the Yankee pen should be ok without him in the coming weeks even though they’ve collectively underwhelmed somewhat through the first month-plus of the season (3.90 ERA).

Chad Green has already been sent down after pitching terribly during April but he’s pitched much better with the Railriders at Triple-A and should be back in the Bronx soon. Jonathan Holder has taken a step back also after his breakout season in 2018 while Zack Britton has been rather inconsistent himself.

On the bright side, Adam Ottavino has been as good as advertised and has taken over as the primary set-up man for Aroldis Chapman who has been solid as usual closing things out. The Yankees best reliever so far, however, has been Tommy Kahnle.

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After having a miserable campaign in 2018 Kahnle has been a savior for the Yankee pen, especially with Betances out and guys like Britton and Holder not pitching up to their standards as of yet.

The Kahnle of 2017 is definitely back as he’s regained some of the velocity on his fastball that he lost last season along with the nasty downward action on his split-finger changeup.

Numbers through May 6th: 1-0, 13 IP, 1.38 ERA, 18 K’s, 0.77 WHIP, .093 OPP BA 

Heading into the season I think the Yankees were expecting Kahnle to bounce back but I don’t think anyone could have predicted he’d be as dominant as he’s been.

With Betances still over a month away from returning, the Yanks need Kahnle to continue to step up and take on a higher leverage role moving forward.