Yankees: Aaron Boone’s timeline for Luke Voit feels like an underestimation

The New York Yankees have mysteriously seen their much-vaunted lineup evaporate into dust over the course of this season, and the short-lived return of Luke Voit didn’t provide the spark they hoped.

Voit missed the first few weeks of the season, and he only made a brief cameo before another knee setback sidelined him again.

Voit led the major leagues with 22 home runs in the shortened campaign last year, but he didn’t look like the same dominant force at the plate in his appearances this season, as he recorded just eight hits in 44 at-bats with just one home run before he suffered this setback.

Aaron Boone tried to give Yankees fans a realistic timeline that could help fans come to grips with this shocking development, but Boone’s words are usually predecessors to an extended absence, and we might see more of the same here.

Voit, per Boone, is going to miss “a few weeks, at least.” Voit is going to return home to celebrate the birth of his child, and he will get some treatment for his knee during his stint away from the team.

No Voit for weeks is not the news this beat-up team needed to hear.

The Yankees need to fight on without Luke Voit.

After holding on with a Giancarlo Stanton-less period following his hot start, and now Voit going on the IL means the Yankees won’t have a lineup at full strength for multiple weeks. With Corey Kluber now shelved for a long time, Murphy’s Law is really starting to sink its teeth into the Yankees.

DJ LeMahieu has experience at first base, and he is the most logical option to take Voit’s spot at first. Miguel Andujar is playing there today against the Detroit Tigers, so he will get plenty of chances to prove he is healthy and ready to do some damage.

Chris Gittens has done everything imaginable to earn a call-up, but the Yankees have yet to pull the trigger. Perhaps he finally gets his chance with Voit shelved for a long time. With the AL East as tight at the top as any division in the game, this is a killer blow for a Yankees team looking to reassert themselves after a slow start.

Voit will be back, and his history with the Yankees suggests that he will eventually start slugging moonshots again. None of that erases the fact that his injury is the latest in a comical string of bad luck the franchise has had over the last few years.

Yankees: Justin Wilson’s IL stint makes Aaron Boone’s decision look even worse

The Yankees placing reliever Justin Wilson on the injured list after he blew Friday night's game makes Aaron Boone's decision look even worse.