The New York Yankees might want to consider taking the field wearing bubble wrap moving forward. The team was hit by yet another injury Friday, as catcher Gary Sánchez was placed on the injured list. The 26-year-old Sánchez will miss at least the next 10 days due to a left calf strain. He was hitting .268/.333/.732 with six home runs to open the season. The move leaves the Yankees with quite a few big names on the IL. It’s April 12. Here’s your updated Yankees IL tally: --Jacoby Ellsbury --Jordan Montgomery --Didi Gregorius --Luis Severino --Ben Heller --Dellin Betances --Aaron Hicks --Giancarlo Stanton --Miguel Andujar --Troy Tulowitzki --Gary Sánchez (but, hey, CC Sabathia is coming back) — Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) April 12, 2019 At this point, the team’s lineup is being held together by Aaron Judge, Luke Voit, Gleyber Torres and six rolls of duct tape. The early injuries have taken their toll on the Yankees. After 12 games, the team is just 5-7. Given the amount of talent on the injured list, that record could actually be viewed as a positive. Gary Sánchez becomes the latest Yankee to hit the IL. (Getty Images) There’s still plenty of time for the Yankees to turn things around. Other than Luis Severino and Miguel Andújar, the rest of the impact players on the IL should return to the team soon. While losing Severino and Andújar for significant time would hurt, the Yankees are far too talented to count out without them. Still, it would help if the team started getting healthy soon. The Tampa Bay Rays have gotten off to a hot start and it’s only a matter of time before the Boston Red Sox surge up the standings. The Yankees should be just fine, but getting everyone back soon would do a lot to put their fans at ease over the team’s slow start. ——— Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik Story continues More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>NEW YORK -- Another day, another New York Yankees star to the injured list. With 11 other players already on their IL, the Yankees announced Friday afternoon that catcher Gary Sanchez would be joining them, retroactive to Thursday, after suffering a left calf strain earlier this week. Sanchez will be replaced on the active roster by catcher Kyle Higashioka, who was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In five minor league games this year, Higashioka is batting .222 (4-for-18) with four RBIs. Austin Romine will be the regular starter in Sanchez's absence. The IL stint comes as somewhat of a surprise, considering both Sanchez and manager Aaron Boone expressed optimism Wednesday that he would be starting Friday's series opener at home against the Chicago White Sox. After catching Monday's game at Houston, Sanchez served as designated hitter Tuesday night and then came off the bench as a pinch hitter Wednesday. New York was off Thursday. Boone said he benched Sanchez on Wednesday as a way of trying to give him an extra off day ahead of this weekend's series. The manager also indicated tests were run on Sanchez in Houston after the catcher complained of some calf tightness following Monday's game. The timing of the move couldn't be worse for the Yankees, who had been getting valuable offensive production from Sanchez. Through just 11 games, Sanchez has 11 hits -- six home runs -- and 11 RBIs. He hit three homers against Baltimore last Sunday -- the first time he hit three in a game in his career. Seven of his 11 base hits this season also have been for extra bases. Hurting, For Sure The New York Yankees currently have 12 players on the injured list heading into Friday's game against the White Sox. Player Injury Projected return CC Sabathia Knee/heart Saturday Dellin Betances Shoulder impingement Late April Giancarlo Stanton Left biceps strain Late April Troy Tulowitzki Left calf strain Late April Gary Sanchez Left calf strain Late April Miguel Andujar Small labrum tear Late April or 2020* Aaron Hicks Lower back tightness Mid-May Didi Gregorius Right elbow Late July Luis Severino Right lat strain Late July Jordan Montgomery Left elbow August Ben Heller Right elbow August Jacoby Ellsbury Hip/foot Unknown * Could return in coming weeks, or may need season-ending surgery The Yankees officially have 12 players on the IL, including All-Stars Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, Troy Tulowitzki and former MVP Giancarlo Stanton. Miguel Andujar, last year's American League Rookie of the Year runner-up, also is shelved, as is shortstop Didi Gregorius and center fielder Aaron Hicks. One of the injured Yankees, starting pitcher CC Sabathia, is expected to come off the IL either Friday or Saturday morning. Following rehab from offseason knee and heart procedures, Sabathia is scheduled to make his first start of the season Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.<doc-sep>Maybe there is such a thing as an injury bug. Before a rain-shortened 9-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Friday, the Yankees placed catcher Gary Sanchez, their best power hitter through the first two weeks of the season, on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain. Sanchez is the Yankees’ 12th player on the injured list, the most in the major leagues. It got worse later in the day: Manager Aaron Boone revealed that relief pitcher Dellin Betances’ return from a shoulder injury discovered in spring training had been stalled. Betances had been hoping to perhaps return later this month, but his recent simulated game at the team’s facility in Tampa, Fla., “didn’t go great,” Boone said, so Betances flew to New York for a magnetic resonance imaging examination on Friday and a visit with the team doctor. Betances will receive a cortisone shot in the back of his right shoulder, where he has had a bone spur for many years. The Yankees have known about the spur since 2006, when they drafted Betances, but it hasn’t caused a problem until now, General Manager Brian Cashman said. Betances will be shut down for three weeks, and the Yankees hope he can return to the roster in six to seven weeks.<doc-sep>North Jersey | Peter Caldera: It’s official. After a day of speculation, Gary Sanchez was moved to the 10-day injured list with a calf strain. He’s the 12th Yankee on the list right now, and the team is now down its most productive hitter. What an April. Kyle Higashioka is up to fill the backup catcher role in Sanchez’s place. New York Post | George King III: One of the things that made Gleyber Torres so valuable as a prospect was his ability to play well at shortstop while being a plus hitting prospect. Last year he manned second for most of the season, and didn’t really impress anyone with his defense. This year, he’s seen much more time at short, and the Yankees have begun to see the improvement with the glove they always wanted. NJ.com | Randy Miller: Jay Bell, the manager of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, has some advice for the young call-ups thrust into the Yankee lineup with all these injuries. For the most part, he preaches patience, with a reminder that rookies like Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar tend not to happen as often as rookies that struggle in their first go-round, like Tyler Wade. MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: In other injury news, Luis Severino won’t be back on a big league mound until at least June. The Yankees look to be weathering the storm on the pitching front, with CC Sabathia due to return Saturday and Gio Gonzalez pitching on a regular schedule in the minors. Here’s hoping the rash of injuries doesn’t continue to affect the rotation, as the Yankees are running low on in-house options.<doc-sep>
The Yankees are in trouble. That’s what SI.com’s Jon Tayler wrote on April 4, just a week into the 2019 season. Now, eight days later, the Yankees have been swept by the Astros and are returning home without their starting catcher. Gary Sanchez was placed on the 10-day injured list Friday with a left calf strain, bringing their total casualty count up to 12. Of the nine players in their opening day lineup, four of them are on the injured list: Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton (bicep strain), Miguel Andújar (torn labrum in right shoulder) and Troy Tulowitzki (left calf strain). And that doesn’t even include starting centerfielder Aaron Hicks (left lower back strain) and shortstop Didi Gregorius (recovering from Tommy John surgery). The Sanchez injury came just as he was starting to get hot. The 26-year-old catcher ripped three home runs in the Yankees’ 15-3 win over the Orioles, and is slashing .268/.333/.732 overall with six homers and 11 RBIs. Sanchez’s strong start seemed important not just for the injury-plagued Yankees but also for him personally. Once considered the best pure hitter of the Baby Bombers, Sanchez was frequently injured, put up disappointing offensive numbers (.186/.291/.406 with 18 homers) and played dreadful defense behind the plate. The bright spot for Sanchez and the Yankees, though, was that both he and Yankees manager Aaron Boone are “optimistic” that Sanchez won’t be sidelined for long. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reported on Twitter that Sanchez will have “three more days of no activity, then resume workouts.” "When you do have a little bit of a strain in there, it gets pretty easy to injure those things and then it becomes a four-, six-, eight-week type thing. Or best case, it lingers and it's an issue," Boone told reporters before the Yankees’ Friday night game against the White Sox, according to Hoch. "I think the best case right now is to take him out of it. Hopefully, it's something that is a pretty short stint." The Yankees also announced Friday that right-handed reliever Dellin Betances (right shoulder impingement) had a setback during a simulated game on Thursday in Tampa, Fla. Originally expected to return to the bullpen later this month, Betances instead returned to New York for an MRI. During the rain delay in Friday night's 9-6 loss to the White Sox, general manager Brian Cashman told reporters that Betances will have a cortisone shot on Saturday and will be shut down for three weeks. It is expected to be at least six or seven weeks until he pitches in a major-league game, per The Athletic's Lindsey Adler. But not all Yankee news was bad on Friday. Andújar is hoping to avoid surgery to repair his torn labrum, which would sideline him for the remainder of the season. After taking 50 swings on Friday, 25 off a tee and 25 “dry,” the third baseman said he felt no discomfort, according to Hoch. Stanton hit off the tee, hit soft toss and is progressing well, Boone told reporters. And the Yankees’ injured list is going to get shorter on Saturday when CC Sabathia makes his first start of the season after having offseason heart and knee surgery. Of course, no part of the situation is ideal. On top of all this, ace starting pitcher Luis Severino (Grade 2 lat strain) suffered a setback earlier this week that will keep him out till mid- to late-June at the absolute earliest. But as long as the Yankees can stay afloat with the Red Sox and Rays in the AL East, they should be getting about a dozen reinforcements over the next several months.