Yankees hit with Trent Grisham injury reality as nightmare replacement arrives

Welcome to July, New York Yankees fans! It's a lot like June, except "Swoon" has been replaced by "Midsummer Injuries (and Maybe Also Swoon)".

Prior to Monday night's game, the Yankees announced that reliever Fernando Cruz would be headed back to the Injured List after injuring an oblique while working with a medicine ball in the weightroom. When the loss ended, Aaron Boone told the gathered media that the severity was high-grade; it'll be a while. The team also revealed that Austin Wells' absence from the lineup wasn't a benching, but rather a brief (?) pause while he underwent a battery of tests to rule out an aneurysm or blood clot. Very cool.

When the action started, Trent Grisham added to the list of troubles by pulling up short on a looper in the fourth and exiting with hamstring stiffness. Though he was spotted on the field testing the waters Tuesday, it seems safe to assume he'll need some time on the shelf, with fans left hoping it'll only be the minimum.

That's about the time that ... former Atlanta Brave/Pittsburgh Pirate/Miami Marlin Bryan De La Cruz wandered into the locker room, straight from Scranton. And that's when reality hit: You can play Aaron Judge/Cody Bellinger/Jasson Dominguez for a while ... but when somebody needs a day off ... or Judge's back barks him into a DH day ... this is who you're now left with.

Yankees' Trent Grisham won't go to the IL yet, but if he does...Bryan De La Cruz will replace him

Grisham will avoid an IL stint ... for now. But if he needs replacing, the Yankees won't be able to go with Everson Pereira (who's slipped a bit, down to a .790 OPS and on the Temporary Inactive List).

Instead, it'll be De La Cruz, the most underwhelming member of the Pirates' horrid trade deadline class last summer. After smashing 18 homers in 105 games for Miami, he bashed just three in 44 games for Pittsburgh, subtracting 1.2 bWAR from the roster while hitting .200 and striking out 52 times. This season for Atlanta, he hit .191 in 16 games before being scooped up in Scranton.

On the bright side, he's hit .250 with seven bombs in 43 Triple-A games for the Yankees this year. On the dark side, a potential All-Star outfielder he is not. A slick center fielder he is not. Grisham's hamstring "tests" had better go well tomorrow if the Yankees want to keep treading water here.