Yankees: DJ LeMahieu hurts self on awkward swing and leaves game

Yankees superstar DJ LeMahieu is the team’s latest injury concern.

UPDATE: LeMahieu was diagnosed with a sprained left thumb. He’s headed for an MRI.

The Yankees were able to survive using a “next man up” mentality in 2019 for many reasons, but one stood out: none of the “men” they lost, for any great length of time, was DJ LeMahieu.

Hopefully, they remain just as lucky in 2020, with LeMahieu flirting with .400 in a 60-game season.

The Machine appeared to hit a serious snag in the bottom of the fourth inning on Saturday, as the trainers came out to visit him following an overmatched swing against Nathan Eovaldi.

With runners on the corners, LeMahieu was a bit vexed by a cutter, and twisted his wrist back on the knob of the bat while failing to make contact, immediately yelping in pain.

After the trainer arrived, LeMahieu ignored all inquiries about his health, literally putting his head down and dealing with it. He regrouped and grounded out weakly on the very next pitch.

Aaron Boone and the coaching staff reemerged to talk to LeMahieu at second base between innings, naturally, but somehow he charmed this overly-cautious team into allowing him to continue, gritting it out for the remainder of the top of the fifth.

The rest of the infield, as well as Brett Gardner, also joined the coaching staff for the question and answer session.

By the sixth inning, however, he had been removed in favor of Tyler Wade, likely after additional swelling.

LeMahieu was hitting .429 entering Saturday’s game, pacing the entire league even after recovering from the coronavirus.

Entering free agency this offseason (though hopefully not for long), he’s also coming off an astoundingly good first season in pinstripes, hitting .327 with 26 homers and 102 RBI, finishing fourth in the MVP race.

Quite frankly, he’s the engine that powers the Yankees, and the best table-setter they’ve had in a generation. He supplements his otherworldly bat control with excellent power, too, especially to the Yankee Stadium short porch.

Losing him would be an absolute nightmare, as well as very on brand for 2020.

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