As Yankees Prepare For Shortened Season, Cashman Optimistic About Health Issues

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and with plenty of skepticism in the air about whether baseball can actually pull off a season from start to finish, there seemed to be plenty of good news when Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke about the upcoming start of spring training.

In a year where health is a major theme of everything, there was plenty of optimism from Cashman during Tuesday’s conference call concerning the injury status of key players Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, James Paxton and Aaron Hicks.

“We are very optimistic as of right now that maybe his proclamation that he would be ready for Opening Day in the lineup will ring true,” Cashman said about Judge. “He has been doing all of his physical activities. Now it comes down to game reps, facing live pitching and seeing if he is in game shape.

“I think that everything works out in spring training 2.0 he has a shot to be ready to go. He has checked all the boxes so far and it is optimistic that it is possible that he would be ready to go by Opening Day.”

Before the world came to a crashing halt and the area near Yankee Stadium became significantly impacted by the pandemic, there were plenty of injury questions for the Yankees, causing fans to shake their head after last year’s team won 103 games while using a major league-record 39 injured list stints, resulting in an overhaul of the training staff.

In review, the status of notable names such as James Paxton, Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton ranged from definitely out to unlikely to be available for the originally scheduled season opener March 26 in Baltimore.

Paxton was definitely going to be out while recovering from back surgery. Hicks was going to definitely be out as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.  Judge was likely to going to be sidelined with a fractured rib and Stanton was likely going to be absent with a calf injury.

By the time the Yankees take the field for the first of 60 meaningful games in a sprint of 66 days, it will be nearly four months, those four players will be available at least based on the assumption they get through spring training without problems and on the comments Cashman made.

Judge is coming off a season in which he missed two months with an oblique injury. It was a little over a year ago that he returned from the injury sustained running out of the batter’s box on April 20 and that was after a fractured wrist that also cost him two months in 2018.

Stanton’s injury saga was much more pronounced than Judge. After hitting 38 homers in his first season as a Yankee, Stanton was limited to 59 at-bats due to knee and biceps injuries and in February he injured his calf in a spring training drill.

“If you are shooting for the DH role by Opening Day, I think that is a possibility,” Cashman said. “The game reps and how he would look and properly be prepared in the three-weeks situation is a legitimate outfield (role). I think that is to be determined.”

As for Paxton, who would be aided by avoiding further injury if only for being a free agent after this season, Cashman said the left-hander is ready. And he will be the No. 2 starter behind Gerrit Cole due to Luis Severino’s Tommy John surgery and is coming off a stellar second half.

Under normal circumstances, Hicks would be about a month after his return from the surgery at least based on past timelines and precedents. After the 2018 season, Didi Gregorius underwent Tommy John surgery and he returned by the second weekend of June.

Injuries will often be a question mark, especially in a shortened season but as the Yankees prepare for their likely season opener July 23 in Washington, they are currently in a good situation to benefit from a four-month break.

“Ultimately, we’re in it to win it,” Cashman said, “I think everybody else should be feeling the same way. And especially in a shortened season, I think it heightens the ability for anybody to really take a shot at the title. And so, therefore, how do they respond to this challenge remains to be seen, but I think it’s certainly going to open it up for a lot of opportunities for teams to take advantage of.”