Yankees' late-night Luke Weaver injury bomb is probably worse than you thought

The most important thing for the New York Yankees is having Luke Weaver fresh and available for the stretch run. They welcome Fernando Cruz back from the Injured List on Tuesday. They traded for Devin Williams this offseason. Mark Leiter Jr. has heated up lately, finishing off an exemplary May. Jonathan Loaisiga is back; maybe someday soon he'll start pitching like it. There's nothing structurally wrong with Weaver, and there's no issue in his elbow or shoulder.

Alright, that's it for the copium-filled silver linings. Weaver injured his hamstring warming up prior to Sunday night's ninth inning in Los Angeles and, after an MRI Monday, he'll miss between four and six weeks.

It's bad almost every way you slice it. And, after the way his injury was discussed on Sunday night, it felt like, at worst, a 10-day injury he'd shake off. When Carlos Carrasco was placed on waivers Monday afternoon, it seemed possible that'd be the corresponding Cruz move, and Weaver wouldn't be missing any time at all.

Nope. Worse than you thought. We're looking at the All-Star Break here - and we're looking at Weaver losing out on a well-earned All-Star trip as well, in all likelihood.

Yankees' Luke Weaver to (likely) miss 4-to-6 weeks with hamstring injury

Life without a closer is a brutal one, and there's no better time than the present for Devin Williams to get over the final mental hurdle he's been facing. He's been brilliant in high leverage lately. He was incredible at Dodger Stadium Sunday night - and, scoff if you want to, but a three-run lead in that house of horrors with Hyeseong Kim, Shohei Ohtani, and Teoscar Hernández due up isn't your typical three-run lead. That was probably his third-most stressful inning of the season when it began, behind Opening Day against his old team and the extra 10th inning against the Padres. He came out just fine.

But the last time the Yankees tried him in the ninth? High changeup, high changeup, high changeup, and an extremely narrow escape in Anaheim.

At least the Yankees are playing a schedule filled mostly with - oh, the Red Sox? Six times, three at Fenway?

Rest up, WeavDog. We need you back and your mixture of frenetic energy and ruthless efficiency. Badly.