Overused Yankees reliever hits Injured List with obscure and painful-sounding injury

Is New York Yankees reliever Mark Leiter Jr. useful? When he's peaking at 95-96 and his splitter looks like a genuine change-of-pace, absolutely. When he's been run into the ground and has no stamina left, leaving the splitter looking more like a loping marshmallow? No, not really.

With the Yankees' bullpen under duress this spring (and Fernando Cruz on the Injured List), Aaron Boone has gone to Leiter Jr. more than ever, and by and large the dip has felt permanent. Leiter Jr. has a 2.65 home ERA and a ghastly 6.23 road mark. Hitters batted a robust .395 against him in June as his ERA rose from 2.70 in March/April to 4.91 in May to 5.63 in June (and 9.00 in three July outings).

Something had to give, and it turns out it was Leiter Jr.'s knee.

If Boone had been allowed to go to the Leiter Jr. well forever, he would've, even as the right-hander lost his ability to drop and drive. According to the righty — who you'd never describe as anything but a gamer — he first felt a pop in his leg on a pitch he delivered in Cincinnati, which he capped off with a valiant dead sprint to first. He's now been placed on the IL with something called a "left fibular head stress fracture," which sounds ghastly to pitch through.

For the time being, Clayton Beeter will replace him; the Yankees prospect has allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings across his only appearance of the season at the MLB level. On Wednesday, when Cam Schlittler is recalled for his MLB debut, either Beeter will be demoted or Geoff Hartlieb will be DFA'd.

Yankees promote Clayton Beeter after painful-sounding Mark Leiter Jr. injury

The "best" version of Leiter Jr. — the one the Yankees thought they'd be able to mold after they acquired the bulldog righty from the Cubs last summer — has never really manifested. He's occasionally been gritty, surviving several tense situations last October. He's often been forced to navigate plenty of traffic regardless of success, much of it self-inflicted.

At this point, he is what he is — an occasionally great, often dreadful, and ultimately acceptable reliever. There is no timetable for his return as he recovers from something that was almost certainly exacerbated by Aaron Boone's insistence on using him constantly.