The Injuries Are Piling Up

By Sal Maiorana

March 3, 2025

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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We are barely a week into the Grapefruit League schedule and the Yankees are already in midseason injury form, looking like an old, dilapidated team.

It is simply absurd how every year this team seems to use spring training to get hurt rather than get ready for the season, but should any of us be surprised when it comes to the Yankees inglorious health history? Of course not.

To catch up on the folly of last week down there in Tampa: 2024 AL rookie of the year Luis Gil has a sore shoulder which will almost certainly cause him to miss the start of the season; Giancarlo Stanton and his two tennis elbows have already been placed on the injured list to start the year, so forget about seeing him probably until May; DJ LeMahieu suffered a calf injury Saturday in his first game of the spring; and Scott Effross tweaked a hamstring throwing his first pitch in a game situation.

Unbelievable. It really is.

Let’s start with Gil. I guess this was predictable, right? Gil had thrown just 29.2 innings combined in 2022 and 2023 due to Tommy John surgery, but then threw 159.1 innings counting the postseason in 2024. Making a jump in work like that was always going to be a risk, and sure enough, he’s hurt.

Throughout the second half of the season, his workload was a talking point and many believed the Yankees should have backed off a bit, but they were in go-mode chasing the AL East and ultimately the AL pennant so Gil kept making his starts, though the Yankees did try to limit his innings. In only one of his last 10 regular seasons starts did he surpass 100 pitches and he never threw more than six innings.

Gil was throwing a bullpen session when he cut it short complaining of pain, after which Aaron Boone said, “When a pitcher stops his bullpen, that’s concerning. But I also don’t want to get too far ahead. We’ll see what we have. But anytime they pull themselves from a bullpen a couple pitches in, that’s concerning.” He underwent an MRI but the Yankees have yet to announce the results.

Stanton went back to New York to tend to a personal matter, and while he was there he received platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections in both his elbows and he won’t be able to do much of anything once he returns to Tampa. “The biggest thing is getting him right, and if that costs us a little bit on the front end, so be it,” Boone said. “I do feel like we’ll get to a good spot with this. It’s a long year.”

I said this last year, and I’ll say it right now: LeMahieu is done. He has simply broken down and the problem is that he’s a payroll albatross because they still owe him $30 million over the next two seasons. Rather than just eat that money and move on, they’re trying to draw blood from a stone. Unsurprisingly, there is not a drop in there.

“That’s not ideal, just with all that he’s had to deal with,” Boone said of the calf injury which he suffered running to first base in his second at bat. “We’ll see what we have there, and we’ll see how significant it is. These soft tissue things have popped up on him, so it’s at least a little concerning.”

LeMahieu was actually the leading candidate to be the starting third baseman which was never a favorable situation. With this injury, my guess is he won’t be ready to play Opening Day so unless the Yankees do something, the third base competition is between Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza. In other words, it remains unfavorable.

“It’s not anything major, but it’s probably going to be a little bit before I start doing baseball stuff again. I can’t put a timeline on it,’’ LeMahieu said. “I wanted to come in this spring and prove that I’m healthy and I’m not off to the hottest start with that. I’m confident I can help this team, I know that.’’

Anyone out there confident about that? I didn’t think so.

And then there’s Effross, who you may not even know exists because, quite frankly, how could you? Since being acquired in an Aug. 1, 2022 trade from the Cubs for pitcher Hayden Wesneski, Effross has thrown exactly 16 innings in pinstripes.

After looking exactly like the reliever the Yankees were hoping he’d be for them in his first 13 appearances in 2022 (2.13 ERA, 1.026 WHIP), he blew out his elbow and had to undergo Tommy John surgery. That cost him all of 2023, and then he spent most of 2024 in Triple-A with the exception of three lousy late-season appearances for the Yankees where he had a 5.40 ERA and 1.500 WHIP in 3.1 innings.

The 31-year-old was expected to be a part of the bridge innings section of the bullpen this year before his latest setback. With four other bullpen candidates - Jake Cousins, JT Brubaker, Clayton Beeter and Jonathan Loiasiga - also on the shelf, the Yankees are scrambling.