Former Yankees top prospect's rough injury during Brewers game was gruesome reminder

The New York Yankees had a rude awakening in Spencer Jones' debut, rolling from a late rally against Texas in a matinee directly into the harsh reality of facing a juiced-up Jacob Misiorowski. Max Fried struggled, but it didn't matter much; nobody could've touched Misiorowski with a table leg. Sadly, the blowout loss, combined with the Yankees debut, left fans a lot of time to get lost in thought. That malaise was jolted by a horrifically familiar moment

Midway through the fourth inning, speedy ex-Yankees top prospect Brandon Lockridge, now a Brewer, ran full-speed towards the left field line in pursuit of a lofted Cody Bellinger fly. Lockridge crouched into a slide, exposing his knee to an oddity in the stadium's design. He rammed the outstretched knee directly into a horrific corner, crumpling and quickly being carted off in a mass of sympathetic humanity.

Lockridge, a Yankee from 2018 to 2024, made his MLB debut for the San Diego Padres in 2024 after being flipped for Enyel De Los Santos.

Former Yankees prospect Brandon Lockridge's nasty injury had shades of Dustin Fowler

If this moment made Yankees fans cringe with familiarity, it's because a nearly identical thing happened to a similar rangy, fringy former New York outfielder: Dustin Fowler in his MLB debut in Chicago. Ironically, this echo of the past happened while another Yankees outfielder in Jones was making his first impact.

He was called up as a 22-year-old to fill a midsummer need in a game against the White Sox, and while he appeared in the contest, he never batted; instead, he crashed into the right field wall and underwent immediate surgery for an open rupture of the patellar tendon. His season was over midway through his first defensive inning in one of the more heartbreaking emotional swings in modern Yankees history.

Frankly, this moment also provided shades of Aaron Judge's toe at Dodger Stadium, too. Why is there a section of the ballpark that juts out so dangerously? It doesn't take an unnatural act to interact with it forcefully. Lockridge was running full speed, but he wasn't doing anything abnormal.

The now-31-year-old Fowler did valiantly make it back, playing 69 games for the Oakland A's the very next year in 2018, hitting six homers and subtracting 1.0 WAR from the roster. Lockridge, a burner whose grit and speed defines his game, could have a long road back, but Fowler's story shows the moment of impact doesn't have to be the end of the tale.

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