New York Yankees: the injury bug… by the numbers
To start the 2020 season, the New York Yankees will be without five of their key players and that’s not even the scariest part about their injury problem.
Last season, the New York Yankees set an MLB record when Gio Urshela became the 29th member of the team to hit the injured list in late August. Previously, the Los Angeles Dodgers held the record with 28 IL stints back in 2016.
This season, it seems the Yankees are picking up right where they left off with five key players — Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, James Paxton, and Luis Severino — already set to miss time this coming season.
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All of this bad luck (?) piqued my numerical interest, so I whipped out my calculator and started punching in the numbers. This is what I found:
Combined, these players have made 18 separate IL stints since joining the Yankees. In 2019 alone, Judge (played in 106 of 162 G), Hicks (played in 59 of 162 G), and Stanton (played in 18 of 162 G) only played in 37% of the season combined.
What’s more, Severino and Paxton started in 32 games combined. By comparison, 35 total MLB pitchers started at least 32 games in 2019.
Now, these injuries have huge implications for the organization (A) in terms of wins, and (B) in terms of finances.
In fact, the Yankees will be without $63.8M worth of players when the Yankees take on the Orioles in Baltimore on March 26th. To put this in perspective, that’s $63.8M more than the payroll of the Rays (~$60M), Pirates (~$51.1M), Marlins (~$46.4M), and Orioles (~$45.5M) each.
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Also, that’s generally about what the entire contract of these seven players is worth:
- Yadier Molina: 3-years, $60M
- A.J. Pollock: 5-years, $60M
- Carlos Santana: 3-years, $60M
- Mark Melancon: 4-years, $62M
- Justin Turner: 4-years, $64M
- Nicholas Castellanos: 4-years, $64M
- Mike Moustakas: 4-years, $64M
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Last season, the New York Yankees overcame all of the adversity by winning 103 games and were just two wins away from the 2020 World Series. Can they pull it off again this season? Only time will tell.