00:00Joel Sherman in Yankee Stadium.
00:03It's never good for the Yankees when they post their lineup several hours before a game and Aaron Judge's name's
00:07not in it.
00:09Here's a little bit that you might not know.
00:11It's been in it a lot.
00:13Judge had played in 108 straight games, which was the fifth longest streak, believe it or not.
00:19As we sit here on Lou Gehrig Day and think about 2000, what was it, 131 and Lou Gehrig's legacy.
00:26Judge had played in 108 straight games.
00:28It was the fifth most in a row.
00:30Not playing to open the series against the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night.
00:37He has what was described by the manager, Aaron Boone, as a bone bruise that had been bothering him for
00:43a while.
00:43And then, in Boone's word, had worsened over the weekend in Sacramento.
00:47He's gone for imaging.
00:49It feels like this is going to be a couple of days at least.
00:53I will say this.
00:55From talking to people around the Yankees, I think they went to bed on Monday night.
01:00Very worried about this injury.
01:02And the imaging suggested that the worry isn't as big, but it's still significant.
01:09Aaron Boone described that it was right side.
01:11When you hear bone bruise on the shoulder, not here.
01:13He described more in the rib, clavicle area here.
01:18We should know more later Tuesday night, early Wednesday, about the length of this.
01:24Obviously, you could probably put one and one together.
01:28Aaron Judge hasn't looked like Aaron Judge for a few weeks.
01:31Boone described this as a nagging injury.
01:34Something that had been bothering him and, again, worsened over the weekend.
01:37And I would put one and one together and suggest that some of Judge's offensive problems were probably tied to
01:44it.
01:45The best news for the Yankees would be maybe a couple of days down.
01:49Boone, calm the injury down and get back.
01:53Judge is a guy who obviously loves to play and feels a responsibility to play.
01:57But I think that an IL stint is probably not out of the question.
02:01They're not in a perfect period quite for this.
02:06Jason Dominguez is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment later in the week.
02:10So maybe he becomes a factor early next week.
02:13Again, who knows if Judge needs the IL and they'll do it.
02:17But Giancarlo Stanton is still running but not progressing very far yet.
02:24Aaron Boone has refused to put a timeline on that, even if he would need a rehab stint or not.
02:34For now, I think this is a way that both Caballero and Volpe are going to play a lot in
02:39the small right field here at Yankee Stadium.
02:42Caballero is starting tonight.
02:43I would expect he'll get lots of starts, especially against lefty pitching.
02:48And it's a way for him to play both Caballero and Volpe.
02:51As Boone often says, these issues work themselves out.
02:54It was a busy somewhat day around the Yankees.
02:58They also announced that Carlos LeGrandje was being switched from starter to reliever.
03:04It's something we've talked and written quite a lot about.
03:07The Yankees have been discussing this for a while.
03:09When's the right time to pull the trigger on this?
03:12You reach this point of the season, the Yankees have built up some starting pitching depth.
03:17The five guys they have here, Elmer Rodriguez in the minor leagues.
03:22Clark Schmidt is starting to increase his workload.
03:26And they're hoping that maybe late July or early August that he'll become someone who comes into view after Tommy
03:32John's surgery.
03:33Luis Heal is beginning a throwing progression.
03:36Ryan Yarborough is still around.
03:37So they felt they had enough depth to at least begin this transition and see if LeGrandje's triple-digit fastball
03:46plays in the bullpen.
03:47And it is not going to be a week or two.
03:50This is going to be, I think, at least a month, maybe more, of transitioning.
03:54They have to, what they call, kind of decelerate him a little bit, lower the workload.
04:00He pitched about 50 innings this year as a starter.
04:03The big plan is still that he's going to be a starter moving forward.
04:07The comparison I've made over and over on this, I'll do it once again here.
04:112018 Corbin Burns was a very similar type prospect to where Carlos LeGrandje is right now.
04:17About this time of year, the Brewers, the very much contending Brewers of 2018, transition Burns from starting to relieving.
04:27It took him about a month in the minor leagues.
04:28And then he came up and threw 30 really important innings for a Brewer team that got to Game 7
04:33of the NLCS against the Dodgers.
04:35And I expect that LeGrandje is going to take about a month.
04:39They're not going to rush this.
04:41He's an important part of their present and future.
04:44I think that he'll probably fall into maybe a hybrid kind of role where he'll pitch a couple of weeks,
04:50a couple of times a week once he gets here.
04:53But they're going to have to answer several slots in the bullpen.
04:57They're going to see how much of this they could do internally, would spill over from the rotation, and they
05:01know they're going to have to make a trade or two.
05:03So there's that on the pitching side and more pressing their best player and arguably the best hitter in the
05:12world, Aaron Judge, is going to miss some time.
05:14Yankee's going to cross their fingers that it's days and not weeks at an IL stick.
05:20You
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