The New York Yankees are dealing with a bevy of injuries heading into the regular season on April 1, but luckily none are super serious. The expectation is that the Yankees will have all their injured players back within the next month, but it could take them some time to get into shape for the top team.
Specifically, relief pitcher Zack Britton required arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone chip from his elbow, being hit with a six-week recovery timetable. Luckily, he’s a few weeks into rehab and should be ready sometime in May. As for first baseman Luke Voit, who will undergo surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus, it could take him a few weeks to recover.
“That means the term partial meniscus tear means that he’s going to have a cleaning,†Dr. Laith Jazrawi, an orthopedic sports surgeon in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone Health told NJ.com. “They’re going to take a little piece of his meniscus out. That’s typically a three- to four-week recovery on a professional level. It’s a pretty straightforward surgery.â€
“He’ll have that done in the next few days which will be three weeks of no baseball activity and then ramp up from there,” Boone said. “It was a decision between getting it treated and playing through it because functionally, he was playing but was still dealing with some swelling in there after games.”
Voit has been struggling this spring with a .219 average over 32 at-bats, but we might be able to cough up his performance as a result of his knee injury. He was fighting through, but the Yankees felt as though getting it out-of-the-way now is a better course, potentially injuring it further.
I expect to see Jay Bruce and possibly Mike Ford at first base in his absence, as Ford is having himself a solid spring, hitting .259 with one homer and three RBIs over 27 at-bats. He recently went 4-for-4 against Toronto and hit a line-drive homer.