Emotional Trent Grisham shows what Yankees are losing without Oswaldo Cabrera

I do not know how the New York Yankees finished Monday night's baseball game in Seattle after Oswaldo Cabrera went down.

I do not know how you regroup in an 11-5 game after witnessing what they witnessed. I do not know how you record the final three outs after watching a head trainer switch from diagnosing to comforting, rubbing the back of a fallen family member and telling him it'll be alright rather than moving onto the next step of recovery. That was the moment most viewers knew for certain that it would not be alright.

The Yankees will more than likely lose Cabrera for the season after he'd been granted significant playing time for the first extended stretch since his 2022 debut. The Yankees will now welcome DJ LeMahieu back at a very opportune time. They likely would've been involved in third base trade talks this summer regardless of a Cabrera injury. But while they probably had designs on replacing — or scaling back — the player's reps at some point this season, you can never replace the person.

Trent Grisham, the star of the game and the first person Meredith Marakovits talked to on the field after the horrific incident, made that abundantly clear, wiping away a tear as he tried to convey the team's emotion, saying it all in one reflexive gesture.

Yankees, Trent Grisham overcome with emotion after losing Oswaldo Cabrera to devastating injury

At the very least, the Yankees can still harness the power of Cabrera's persona on the bench for the remainder of the season. But they cannot feed off his positive energy on the field. They cannot feel it radiate. That was the affable, I'll-do-whatever-you-ask-of-me utility man's secret sauce.

Cabrera is far more than just a Yankee whose intangibles outweigh his production. He's the only Yankee who even the rivals can't help but love. Knowing Cabrera, he probably even found a semblance of peace in his darkest moment by remembering his injury may have saved the roster spot of Pablo Reyes or Oswald Peraza upon LeMahieu's return Tuesday night.

And, knowing the Captain Aaron Judge, he was probably cursing himself for manufacturing a run with a fly out rather than just whiffing, for the first and last time of his life.

The only real silver lining is that the Yankees will have Cabrera the person with them every step of the way from hereon out. But it doesn't make the abrupt impact of Monday night's random chance — with three impossible outs still to get — any less gutting.