With Harrison Bader’s return to The Show, there are now 12 Yankees on the IL.
New York sits 15-15 with a sole spot at the bottom of the AL East standings. For the time being there is no light in sight for a team that has been the definition of disappointing this season.
The Yankees have Willie Calhoun getting regular at-bats despite him being statistically the worst player in the majors over the past two years with a -2.4 WAR. Not to mention the factor of Aaron Hicks, who cannot hit despite him getting pitches from both sides of the plate and cannot catch a routine fly ball.
On the pitching side it’s mainly been Gerrit Cole for the starting rotation, everyone else either has an ERA above 4.00 or have been playing inconsistent baseball. Bullpen arms are being used up at a rate where this team could be in some serious trouble if they end up (somehow by a miracle) making a playoff run.
But when you have an average team that is floating without a life vest in the vast ocean of what is Major League Baseball, then you will have losing results.
New York’s 2022 payroll is $262M and about $110M worth of that is currently listed on the IL. Among the names out are Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Rodon.
Next man-up has been a game that the Yankees organization has lived or died by going back to 2018 and right now they are burying themselves alive and it is only the first week of May.
Nothing will be fixed though and expensive IL stints will continue to build up until the Yankees front office stop signing has-beens and solid players that can't stay healthy