Monday, July 6, 2020

Will a 60-man "taxi squad" be enough for the china doll Yankees? And could they be compelled to trade prospects for a pennant surge?

This week, James Paxton threw off a mound, and Aaron Hicks did jumping jacks in center field. In the future ledger books, nobody will suspect they were injured for the first half of 2020. They have impeccable COVID timing. 

Yet the question still hovers over each: Can he ever stay healthy?

Each is a walking tweak. Bad backs, suspect shoulders, core muscles - you name it. Their gonads need bubble wrap.

Same with Giancarlo Stanton, who also was ready to miss the spring. And Aaron Judge, still nursing a bum rib. Then there is Jonathan Loaisiga - the revolving door of shoulder woes - and Jonathan Holder, Jordan Montgomery, Miguel Andujar, Clint Frazier, Gary Sanchez and the cast of America's Got Talent. In a 60 game season, each is a bug on the windshield. One tweak, and they go home.

Coupled with COVID, which already has claimed last year's iron man, DJ Lemahieu, and the mysterious Luis Cessa, the Death Star might need to annex the Trenton Thunder by mid-September. Will the MLB's current 60-man roster be enough? It's easy to foresee Cooperstown Cashman digging into the MLB scrap piles for game-ready talent. Or worse, trading Yankee prospects for an adrenal rush in a pennant race that - in the eyes of many fans - simply will not matter. 

Paxton and Hicks may fool the future historians. (And this is not meant to blame them; injuries are a part of the game.) But 2020 will be a season far different than anything in history. Will it even qualify as a true world series? Let's hope the team doesn't have to trade future victories for a season that should not have been played.

4 comments:

JM said...

Injuries are a part of the game but never has that part been so frequent, persistent, and ridiculous. Guys who get tweaks all the time and miss a lot of games just aren't worth it.

So, out goes two-thirds of the team. And good riddance, too.

Alphonso said...

And Giancarlo hurst us more when he can play, than when he is on the IR list.

See Tankaka concussion.....

HoraceClarke66 said...

I wonder just what that big investigation Cashman was going to order into the team's training methods came up with. I'm sure it was thorough and conscientious.

The injuries are integral to what's wrong with the game in general. It's part and parcel of a mindset where the more pumped up you are, the better.

Sure, Cashman makes this worse than any other team by ceaselessly acquiring and signing guys with such extensive injury histories they might as well be holding up big red warning signs. But it's part of the whole, rotten culture of the game.

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