Yankees’ key reliever is lost for the season and will undergo surgery

The New York Yankees have been absorbing blow after blow on the injury front recently, and the latest news coming about Darren O’Day is not good at all. The right-handed submariner, signed by the Bombers this year, will be out for the remainder of the season, the team announced on Tuesday.

The Yankees reliever was doing some pregame sprints in the outfield in Seattle back on July 6. As Betelhem Ashame of MLB.com explains it, the pitcher thought one of his teammates had run into him. Next thing he knows, he fell to the ground and was rolling around in pain.

He heard a pop, so he knew something was not right and he wouldn’t be pitching in a while.

His left hamstring was strained. He has already had surgery in that same hamstring in the past, in June 2018, which ended his season back when he was with the Orioles. This time, he is suffering the same fate: the Yankees announced his season is over.

The surgery will be performed on Wednesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery, by Dr. Brian Kelly.

“[It’s] extremely disappointing,” said O’Day. “I was just coming back from a shoulder injury, starting to feel better and excited to be back with the team contributing again. And to have all that wiped out in one moment is really tough.”

The doctors told O’Day that his hamstring wasn’t the same since that 2018 surgery, even admitting “this was bound to happen at some point.”

“If I ever want to play baseball again or if I want to live the life I want to live post-baseball, then I have to get it fixed,” O’Day said. “And unfortunately, the timeframe puts me out of this season.”

Will he be back with the Yankees?

It’s a legitimate question, then: is this a career-ending injury for O’Day?

“I really came here to New York for two reasons,” O’Day said. “I just wanted to see what it was like to play here — legendary organization. As I said in my first press conference, it’s every little boy’s dream to play for the Yankees. There’s just so much history as I sit here and look around at these posters on the wall.

“And the main goal was to win a World Series. … I’ve gotten really close a couple of times but never been able to quite get there. So that’s what I came here for, and those are the things that flashed in my mind with all that time and effort, sacrifice [it takes] to be here and still keep that dream alive. So for the rest of this season, I’ll have to be dreaming vicariously through my teammates and watching them and helping them in any way I can.”