Losers of three straight and six of their last 10, the New York Yankees received some more bad news on Tuesday afternoon.
Carlos Beltran, who left Monday’s game after hyper-extending his right elbow in the batting cage between at-bats, has been diagnosed with a bone spur and will need a cortisone shot.
WFAN’s Sweeny Murti and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch provided the details:
While Beltran is only day-to-day for now, his comments on the injury, via ESPN’s Wallace Matthews, are certainly less than optimistic:
Of course, as manager Joe Girardi alluded to, via the Wall Street Journal‘s Daniel Barbarisi, and Hoch confirmed, in-season surgery still isn’t out of the picture for the right fielder/designated hitter:
The Yanks continue to be ravished by injury. The pitching staff has been decimated, with Ivan Nova (out for the season), Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia all on the disabled list, and the 37-year-old might soon be joining them.
Ichiro, who would figure to replace Beltran, is also day-to-day with knee and back injuries.
Beltran is hitting just .234 on the season, but he has provided some pop with five home runs and a .430 slugging percentage. The 19-18 Yankees, who are second in the American League in batting average and fifth in slugging, can probably tread water while he’s out, but losing him for a significant stretch is not ideal.
At some point, the pile of injuries is going to be too much for the Yankees to overcome.
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