The New York Yankees have battled injuries to their starting rotation the entire season, and now their ace, CC Sabathia, is the latest pitcher to fall victim.
Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com is reporting that Sabathia will be headed to the disabled list with stiffness in his throwing elbow.
According to Girardi, Sabathia first felt the stiffness after pitching a complete game against the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 3 at Yankee Stadium. A subsequent MRI came back clean, so Sabathia made his next start five days later in Detroit, but left after 6 1/3 innings and just 94 pitches.
Girardi said the stiffness resurfaced after that start, but the decision to put Sabathia on the DL was not made until about 4 p.m. Saturday.
Sabathia’s injury is just the latest in a slew of trainer’s room problems for the Bombers. Sabathia joins Andy Pettitte, Michael Pineda and Mariano Rivera as a member of the walking wounded in the Yanks’ pitching staff.
For the season, Sabathia is 12-3 with a 3.56 ERA, and while those numbers are solid, they aren’t very Sabathia-like.
Normally, Sabathia gets better as the hotter months come during the baseball season, but that hasn’t happened as expected this season.
No matter how serious this injury might or might not be, the Yankees did the right thing shutting Sabathia down for now.
Yes, he is a workhorse, but Sabathia is also human, and with all the voids in the Yanks’ pitching staff, they simply couldn’t take a chance losing their ace for an extended amount of time.
If all goes well, Sabathia should be back by the end of August, and in the meantime, New York will have to piece it together and try to hold onto their division lead, now without two of their best starters.
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