New York Yankees reliever Zack Britton has been placed on the team’s 10-day injured list after suffering a left hamstring strain Wednesday night against Tampa Bay, the team announced Thursday. He joins the company of outfielder Aaron Judge, second baseman DJ LeMahieu, and designated hitter/outfielder Giancarlo Stanton as notable Yankees who have been bitten by the injury bug yet again.
The strain is believed to have come from an awkward play where Britton ran to cover first base in the eighth inning, one where he dropped a toss from the diving Luke Voit, setting up the Rays 4-2 victory while pitching through the apparent injury.
“It seemed like it maybe tightened up and then he felt it a little bit on the last couple pitches of the inning,” manager Aaron Boone told media Thursday morning while Bitton was undergoing an MRI.
In the ninth inning of that game, Boone entrusted recent call-up Miguel Andujar to pinch hit for outfielder Mike Tauchman with the tying runs aboard. Andujar, who’s mustered only two hits this year, struck out in the key situation and was returned to the Yankees’ alternate site Thursday morning.
“I just felt like that was our shot there and felt like Miggy could have put a charge into one there,” Boone said on Wednesday night.
Boone also addressed the slew of Yankees injuries, saying players, in general, are more injury-prone “by the nature” of this screwball of a shortened season.
“It’s just something that you try to be mindful of certainly moving forward,” Boone said about keeping players healthy.
LeMahieu also updated reporters on his left thumb sprain, saying his doctors’ opinions believe the “weird freak thing” of an injury to last between two and three weeks.
The hitting machine of a second baseman added that he doesn’t have a timeline for getting back into a batting cage, but he “moved around out in the field” on Wednesday.
“Just trying to keep doing as much as I can,” the frustrated LeMahieu said, mentioning that his thumb is still “pretty sore” but has improved in recent days.
As this sprain is similar to one LeMahieu suffered in 2018, he’s hoping to be able to come back “full go” with no lingering issues.
One spot of good personnel news is that Judge is still slated to return on Saturday against the Mets in Queens, Boone confirmed.
The Yankees also called up two right-handed pitchers on Thursday, Ben Heller and 22-year-old Miguel Yajure who now anticipates making his major league debut in the upcoming days.
