Julie Jacobson/Associated Press The New York Yankees announced they placed pitcher CC Sabathia on the 10-day disabled list with right knee inflammation Monday. It's just the latest ailment for the 38-year-old. He was placed on the disabled list in early April because of a hip injury, having also dealt with knee and hamstring injuries in recent years. Even despite a handful of injuries as Sabathia has aged, only once (eight in 2014) in his 18-year career has he not made at least 27 starts in a season. He has averaged 30 starts per season over the past three years, including the postseason. The six-time All-Star has been a workhorse throughout his career, throwing at least 188 innings 12 times. Of course, his durability was never more on display than it was when he threw 253 innings in 2008, including 130.2 innings in 17 starts—featuring seven complete games—for the Milwaukee Brewers after a midseason trade for a playoff push. The veteran southpaw may not be the ace he once was, but he has been effective enough in recent seasons (14-5 with a 3.69 ERA in 2017) to lead to the Yankees re-signing him this past offseason. In 2018, he is 7-4 with a 3.32 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP and 106 strikeouts in 22 starts. New York relies on Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ to anchor the rotation at this point. However, Sabathia had improved in each of the past three seasons, becoming an arm the team could depend on consistently. Losing him for an extended period of time will tests the Yankees' depth and potentially cause the bullpen to receive more work. Then again, New York's offense is powerful enough to take the pressure off the pitching staff. With Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius and Co. lighting up the scoreboard, the Yankees are a team that isn't afraid to get into a slugfest.<doc-sep>Last year about this time, CC Sabathia felt discomfort in his surgically repaired right knee. No biggie, the Yankees veteran lefty thought. And so he pitched through the aches and pains. Bad move. And the next move was going on the disabled list. History repeated itself and Sabathia again felt something that wasn’t right in his swollen knee. So he told the Yanks and again went on the DL Monday. But it was not from necessity like last year. Sabathia, after two strong outings, said Tuesday he believes he’ll miss only one start. Sabathia began the season planning for these instances. “I did, and I just wanted to be smart about it,” said Sabathia (7-4, 3.32 ERA) who was diagnosed with an inflamed right hinge. “Last year at this point, I tried to push through and I got to where I was at in Toronto. I didn’t want to make that same mistake.” In Toronto last year on Aug. 8 he pitched against, and lost to, current Yank J.A. Happ(the starter and winner in Tuesday’s 4-1 victory over the Rays). Sabathia was DL’d shortly after that game. So now, he was proactive. The knee, which received a cortisone shot at the All-Star break, was drained and showed improvement after one day. Monday, “It was swollen and range of motion was kind of tough,” he said. After some treatment, Sabathia breathed easier. “(Feeling) good. The swelling is out. We did drain it yesterday (and) I’ll probably try to play catch (Wednesday) and just go from there,” Sabathia said before Tuesday’s Yankees-Rays game in The Bronx. “I think it’s only going to be one start. I told (manager Aaron Boone) I probably could have made my next start and pushed through, but the next one I probably would have been down, so I’m just trying to listen to my body and listen to my knee this time. Not try to push it at a time when I really don’t need to.” The Yankees have inserted Luis Cessa into the rotation, opting for him over top prospect Justus Sheffield or Chance Adams. Cessa is set to pitch Wednesday. “Ces (is) just a little more experienced at this point,” Boone said. “Has had success in different roles. Coming up in this spot start situation for us, we’ve seen him make some good starts for us this year. We just feel like the best guy to slot in.” Another possibility figured to be starter turned reliever Sonny Gray, but Boone zapped that notion for the present. “Not this go-around. We kind of had Cessa locked into it, (and it) coincided with where Luis is on his turn,” Boone said. But that’s not saying the Yankees will not revisit Gray. “It would be a little more challenge to do it conventionally where he’s going to go out and potentially give you a hundred pitches in this kind of a role, but we’ll just see how things continue to evolve,” Boone said. “Sonny to some degree is still built up. Not quite to the degree when he’s obviously in the rotation all the time. If we got into a situation we feel like we could still pop him at this point to be a spot starter.” With off days looming Aug. 20 and 23, Sabathia, who would have pitched Friday, conceivably could work Aug. 24 in Baltimore. “It’s just warming up and in between innings and just all the extra stuff. If I could just go out from here and go to the mound I could probably pitch. But all the warming up and extra throws and stuff is what kills me,” Sabathia said. “I just wanted to try to make sure that I could get some rest and not try to push it when I didn’t have to.” Sabathia, who’s aiming for a strong finish, is buoyed by his last two starts. “It’s frustrating,” he said. “When I’m out there and my knee’s hurting, I’m not even thinking about making a pitch. I’m just trying to not have it hurt. I’m doing whatever I can to not have it hurt. To go out and still be pitching well … is encouraging.”<doc-sep>New York Post | George A. King III: The Yankees finally gave some good news on the injury front yesterday. Or more accurately, they gave one piece of non-bad news. When Gary Sanchez went back on the disabled list in July, the estimated timetable for his return was the last week of August or first week of September. Yesterday, Aaron Boone confirmed that timetable was still...on the table. It’s not exactly exciting, but considering it’s mid-August, I’ll take any optimism on Sanchez’s return. MLB.com | Mandy Bell: It wasn’t all positive on the injury front yesterday, though. In a surprising move, the Yankees announced CC Sabathia was going on the disabled list with right knee inflammation. They made a few moves yesterday as George Kontos was called up to take Sabathia’s spot and then Luke Voit was optioned and Ronald Torreyes, who hadn’t been with the team since May, was called up. Boone also added that while Aaron Judge has yet to swing a bat, it could happen “any day now.” Back to Sabathia for a second though: I know a lot of folks will look at this as a bad thing and that Sabathia is being “soft” or “selfish” or whatever else, but it’s anything but that. I absolutely love Sabathia approaching the Yankees and encourage more players to do the same. If players aren’t feeling 100%, they can’t fear consequences and stay quiet. They have to speak up. Playing through the pain and injury and whatever only hurts the team. Anyway, the Yankees wasted no time announcing who they plan on taking Sabathia’s turn in the rotation. Yankees will go Happ, Cessa, Tanaka vs #Rays — Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) August 14, 2018 I guess rolling the dice with Luis Cessa makes sense if they truly believe Sabathia will only miss one start. If it turns out he needs more time, they can always reevaluate their other options. At least Cessa’s been okay in his three starts so far this year. MLB.com | Joe Trezza: Luis Severino’s second-half struggles continued yesterday. What was billed as an exciting match-up between two aces was anything but that as Severino could not keep up with his Mets counterpart. The Yankees need to do something about about Severino fast, even if it means skipping him a start or two. The timing would be awful considering Sabathia going on the disabled list, but running Sevy out there right now is actively hurting the team. As of right now, the Yankees won’t skip him: Boone said Yankees as of now not planning to skip Severino — Erik Boland (@eboland11) August 14, 2018 Or maybe it all just circles back to Gary Sanchez getting healthy: (Luis Severino needs Gary Sanchez behind the plate.) — Mike Axisa (@mikeaxisa) August 14, 2018 I’m willing to support this train of thought, as hypocritical as it may be of me.<doc-sep>
On Monday the Yankees received some more injury news when they announced that CC Sabathia would be placed on the DL. In his absence, Luis Cessa will fill his spot in the rotation rather than top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield. This is another tough blow to the Yankees at a time where they can ill afford any more injuries. CC was coming off his second straight outstanding start but now he’s back on the DL for the second time this season after it was revealed he had inflammation in his right knee. It’s the same knee that has been causing him issues for years. If the injury doesn’t keep CC out well past the 10 days you would figure that this shouldn’t hurt the Yankees record wise all that much. They have an easy August schedule that they should be able to take advantage of, but they better hope that CC can return for the stretch run come September. With Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka both coming off terrible starts the Yankees need stability from their starting staff if they’re going to hold off the A’s and Mariners to secure that first Wild Card spot. They’ll face both teams on their West Coast trip September 3rd through the 9th and I’m sure manager Aaron Boone would much rather have CC on the mound for a game during those series than Cessa. That’s why if CC does miss more than 10 to 15 days the Yankees should replace him with the young lefty Sheffield instead off Cessa. It’s fair to say Cessa deserves the first crack at it because he’s on the 40-man roster and he’s pitched well at Triple-A. However, if he struggles in his start against the Rays on Wednesday the Yankees should seriously consider giving Sheffield a look moving forward. With Cessa they know what they’re getting and he doesn’t provide nearly the same amount of upside that Sheffield could. Cessa has had numerous spot starts and opportunities to pitch in the starting rotation since 2016, but he’s been nothing but inconsistent. We won’t know if Sheffield can do better until he gets his first opportunity but he’s the Yankees top pitching prospect for a reason. He’s had an excellent first season at Triple-A and has pretty much done everything he can to earn a call-up before the end of the season. I wrote earlier this season that Sheffield could potentially make the same kind of impact Luis Severino did back in 2015 when he made his big league debut. Sevy burst onto the scene and was one of the Yankees best starters down the stretch before the Yanks lost to the Astros in that year’s Wild Card game. It seems like the last step in Sheffield’s development is lowering his walk rate and pitching deep into games, but over his last seven starts, he’s only given up five earned runs in 39.1 IP. Those are impressive numbers no matter how many batters he’s walking per 9 innings (3.53 at AAA). Another reason the Yankees might be hesitant to slide Sheffield into the rotation is that he’s on pace to set a career high in innings with 107 entering today. Sheffield is an important part of the Yankees future so they likely don’t want him pitching any more than 140 to 150 innings this season. That’s understandable but why can’t he pitch those innings at the big league level until CC returns? Want your voice heard? Join the Yanks Go Yard team! Write for us! Once CC gets back the Yankees can either use Sheffield as a weapon out of their bullpen or shut him down for the season. Because if they really want to secure that wild card spot or possibly give themselves a fighting chance to catch Boston in the division Sheffield gives them the best chance to do so. Not Cessa.