Laughable timing makes Yankees' latest DJ LeMahieu setback even worse

Wow, it feels like just yesterday we were writing about how DJ LeMahieu's extended playing time at second base could portend an interesting upcoming shuffle, and how his surge coincided nicely with Jazz Chisholm's flank injury, making his return more palatable. That's because it was yesterday.

Unfortunately, just before game time, Aaron Boone slipped a LeMahieu nugget into his pregame speech that should've been foreseen.

After a 6-for-10 rehab stint (four games) at Double-A Somerset, the plan was to transition LeMahieu to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to begin this week. That plan hit a snag when LeMahieu received a "preemptive" cortisone shot to prevent hip pain from flaring up.

That sounds like a temporary solution to a more permanent problem, though the Yankees still intend to restart LeMahieu's minor-league rehab later this week. Who wants to take bets on whether or not that goes down?

Yankees' DJ LeMahieu had "preemptive" cortisone injection in right hip

Four low-pressure minor-league games (with only two of them back to back) caused a preemptive cortisone injection in his hip. The full 162-game grind of the MLB regular season should go well, in that case!

LeMahieu was, once upon a time, the Paul Goldschmidt of 2019, a surprising veteran unearthed by New York's front office who looked like he was put on earth specifically to mash with runners in scoring position. He hasn't been available for a postseason game since 2020, though, succumbing to various maladies along the way. In fact, LeMahieu hasn't played a postseason game with crowds since his first special season in the Bronx. That is ... crazy.

Chisholm left after just one at-bat (he smoked a triple) on Tuesday, dealing with some sort of pain between his "flank" and oblique (eds. note: it's the oblique). Postgame, he didn't believe it would require an IL stint, and with the off day Thursday, he might be able to rest up and recuperate.

If Chisholm does hit the injured list, though, the Yankees won't have quite so ready-made a solution as it once seemed. Expect a healthy dose of both Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera while LeMahieu contemplates what he might have left in the tank.