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New York Yankees: 3 Yankees who can’t afford to get hurt

By Scott Roche

New York Yankees infielder Gio Urshela (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
New York Yankees infielder Gio Urshela (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Luke Voit #59 of the New York Yankees follows through after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on August 18, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Luke Voit

This seems obvious, but right now, with three of the top four Yankees out of the lineup, Luke Voit is the only one who remains with consistent power.

He is tied with Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels with an American League-high 10 home runs, and has driven in 20 runs for the Bombers, attacking a Rays pitching staff this week that no other Yankee could touch.

Moved around in the order by Boone, Voit seems to produce wherever he’s hitting. Torres has started to show some progress in coming out of his slump, while Gary Sanchez has also hit better lately, but neither is supplying the Yankees with much power — and if Torres is going to miss some time, his leap forward has been muted as well. It’s been Voit carrying that load lately.

Voit took a step back in the second half of 2019, hitting just four homers after tearing his core muscles and attempting to play through extreme pain. It was clearly not the real Voit out there, though his downturn in productivity tricked many Yankee fans into believing that Mike Ford would steal the starting job away from him in 2020.

Now? Ford’s wonderful, but the Yankees cannot afford to lose Voit, or even let him play through pain.

If the Yankees are to stay within striking distance of the Tampa Bay Rays in the division until Judge and Stanton can return, Voit needs to remain healthy and keep supplying the Yankees with power. It’s not coming from anywhere else right now.

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