Who should be on the hook for the latest New York Yankees injury woes?
The last two seasons for the New York Yankees have been plagued by the injury bug, forcing manager Aaron Boone to supplement significant positions with reserve players.
Alternatives like Mike Tauchman, Cameron Maybin, Brett Gardner, and Mike Ford were all forced into starting positions in 2019. Luckily, Boone’s changes worked to perfection, as they lead the Yankees to 103 wins and an ALCS appearance against the Houston Astros. Given the Astros weren’t cheating, the Yankees might have reached the World Series for the first time in a decade.
However, the injury problems didn’t conclude after the season ended. This past spring has been filled with concern, starting with Aaron Judge, who was discovered to have a stress fracture in a rib and a punctured lung sustained on a diving play last September.
The lung has healed sufficiently, but the rib is still undergoing recovery. With MLB shutting down operations, it is expected that Judge will be fully healthy by the start of the regular season, given it actually starts at some point.
Luis Severino is also finished for the season after succumbing to Tommy John surgery, and Giancarlo Stanton, who was injured for a majority of 2019, suffered a grade 1 calf strain, continuing his woes.
The question I have is: Who is to blame for the latest injuries endured by the Yankees?
Former strength and conditioning director Matt Krause was on the hook for all of the injuries the Yankee sustained last season. Thirty-one individual Yankees spent time on the injured list, a league record, which inevitably forced the Bombers to cut ties with Kraus and move on to Eric Cressey.
After Cressey was hired, he stated: “we are in the process of overhauling how we assess players.â€
The insufferable amount of injuries continue to pile the spring, forcing us to reevaluate the decision to hire Cressey. Is it truly his fault, or are these previous injuries connected to Kraus?
Well, we can come to conclusions for each player. Judge‘s injury occurred last September and was just recently diagnosed a few weeks ago; Severino had been feeling discomfort in his shoulder since his previous start against the Astros in the ALCS, and Stanton’s calf strain can also be connected to last year. It seems as if the prior regimen is at fault for the latest Yankee injuries, so we shouldn’t write off Cressey just yet.