Frustrating Harrison Bader injury puts damper on Yankees' late-night win in Seattle

Want the Yankees to extend Harrison Bader? So do we. You'd still better be prepared to deal with the bumps, bruises and hustle injuries.

Any Bader extension will be far less of a burden than the seven-year Aaron Hicks itch that never seemed to end. The Bronxville native likely won't require more than a four-year commitment ... for reasons like what we witnessed on Monday night, when he legged out an infield single, then felt his hamstring "pull on him a little bit".

The Yankees replaced him immediately on the base paths with Greg Allen, who was picked off in a microcosm of what replacing Bader with Allen will probably look like in the short term. He can hit a little! He's got speed! He's not Bader.

Since the center fielder's return from an oblique issue suffered in spring training, he's flung himself around the outfield with reckless abandon, diving, flipping, and getting up unscathed. Of course -- of course -- he was felled by a routine baseball play, and will go for an MRI to determine the extent of the damage on Tuesday afternoon. He didn't necessarily look too worse for wear on Monday night, but he did leave the game immediately.

Yankees Injury Update: Harrison Bader to go for MRI on hamstring Tuesday

Unsurprisingly, Bader's injury comes at the exact time the Yankees were planning to welcome Josh Donaldson back from his rehab assignment. Don't that beat all?

Even if Bader checks out relatively clean on the MRI, you can still expect a 10-day IL stint so the Yankees can push their more difficult decisions back another week or two. Then, Donaldson can replace him on the active roster, Giancarlo Stanton can replace ... probably Oswaldo Cabrera, and Bader can eventually replace Jake Bauers, pending another injury (and there will always be another injury). Willie Calhoun, bizarrely, looks pretty safe, at the moment -- though he could always trend downward, again, since the Yankees will be buying more time here.

Counting Monday's 10-4 victory, the Yankees are now 18-8 since Bader's first return, the best record in MLB. He hasn't been the only catalyst, but he's been a massive plus in all departments, posting an OPS over .800 and making himself essential on defense and in the clubhouse. The Yankees won't look the same without him, if he has to miss any length of time -- but that's no reason at all to wish they'd waited on a Hicks DFA, either.