Yankees Hot Corner – When will injury bug be squashed?

It feels like every time the Yankees take one step forward, they take two steps back.  They still haven’t had a prolonged losing streak, but they have had a season full of injuries.  With 25 men on the I.L. in total, the Yankees have lost more men than any other team in baseball.  Yet somehow, here there are at 72-39 and eight games up in the American League East standings.

It’s hard to imagine a team that’s been more snakebitten than the Yankees, but they continue to use their next man up mentality.  They just win games, regardless of who is in the lineup or pitching.  The Yankees have gotten less than 30 games total out of ace Luis Severino, stud reliever Dellin Betances, former N.L. MVP Giancarlo Stanton and young star Miguel Andujar.

The question now is;  When does this end?  The Yankees looked to be out of the woods a few weeks ago after Brett Gardner went on the I.L., but then C.C. Sabathia went back on, as did Gary Sanchez.  This week alone, Aaron Hicks and Edwin Encarnacion were injured thanks to a strained elbow muscle for Hicks and a HBP that wound up fracturing Edwin’s wrist.

It’s all good and fun when the team is winning, but at what point will the Yankees be unable to sustain this next man up mantra?  The answer may be never but you would always rather have your best players than your backups in.  Regardless of what happens over the next few weeks, it’s all about staying healthy and avoiding what’s been an epidemic.  Hopefully the Yankees have a cure for the injury bug.  If they don’t, they may fall short of their goal by no fault of their own.