NEW YORK — ‘Twas the night before the trade deadline, when all through the Bronx, not a hitter was hitting, against Tyler Glasnow. Twelve strikeouts were hung by the bushel with care, in hopes that Brian Cashman soon would appear.
Yankees fans were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Juan Soto danced in their heads. And mamma in her foam finger, and Aaron Judge, the Cap; had just settled down after watching this scrap.
When out on the field, a 5-1 loss arose such a clatter; that dreams of a World Series seemed likely to shatter. The Rays knocked around Jhony Brito, he gave up five runs in a flash. Last place in the AL East, their wild-card hopes not quite dashed.
One last moon before the deadline, who’s gonna go? Few foresaw the chaos brought on by Germán, Domingo. When, what to my wandering eyes should appear, but an injury to his armpit, and it then became clear.
With a little creativity, so lively and quick, the front office could cure what’s making fans sick. More rapid than Anthony Rizzo’s downfall, the boo birds, they came. And they whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
“Now, JETER! Now, PETTITTE! Now, POSADA and RIVERA!
On, BERNIE! On PAULIE! On, TORRE and ZIM!
To the top of the short porch! To over the wall!
Now stash away! Stash away! Sell for the long haul!”
I don’t know exactly what I was going for up there, but it couldn’t have been much more bizarre than what happened Monday at Yankee Stadium.
First, third baseman Josh Donaldson left reporters scratching their heads after he took part in what nearly amounted to a full pregame workout just a couple of weeks after being diagnosed with what the Yankees called a Grade 2-plus strain of his right calf. The team almost immediately put him on the 60-day injured list, and he’s not eligible to come off it until Sept. 15, which is almost six weeks away.
Typically, players put on the 60-day IL don’t move around as well as Donaldson did. He ran in the outfield, playfully took grounders at second base, and then laced several line-drive home runs when he decided he wanted to jump into a batting practice group.
Just two weeks after being diagnosed with a minimum Grade 2-plus and potential Grade 3 calf strain, Josh Donaldson is taking batting practice. pic.twitter.com/ktBm6Lbjju
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) July 31, 2023
“He is doing well,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He had a pretty high-level strain there. But it was good to see him moving around like he is.”
Donaldson, 37, said he was even shocked by his progress.
“I feel really good right now,” he said, “relative to what the initial results were.”
When Donaldson went on the IL, he was in the middle of a second disappointing season in the Bronx. He had missed a large chunk of the year with a right hamstring strain, and he had hit just .142 with 10 homers, 15 RBIs and a .659 OPS. He said he wasn’t asked to weigh in on whether he felt he should go on the 10-day IL or the 60-day IL.
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“I kind of just was told I was going on the 60,” he said. “But I wasn’t in the conversation for that.”
It had seemed Donaldson might have played his last game for the Yankees. Now, he looks ready to play again, despite so much time remaining on his IL stint.
Things got weirder later.
Righty Domingo Germán had been scratched from his scheduled start after he complained to trainers about soreness in his right armpit, Boone said. Then the Yankees called up Brito — a middling right-handed prospect at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — to start in place of Germán.
But after Brito was hit for five earned runs in four innings, Germán — previously thought to be too injured to pitch — entered the game and tossed five scoreless innings in relief.
Boone said the Yankees’ team doctor had cleared Germán to pitch about 5 p.m., and an hour later, Germán threw off the mound to test his injury. And since he felt fine, the Yankees cleared him to serve in relief of Brito.
Boone said by the time it had been decided that Germán was capable of pitching Monday night, it was too late for him to switch spots with Brito and start the game.
“Not once he goes out and throws warmup pitches at 6:15 p.m. to see if he’s OK,” Boone said. “No, not at that point. You’re getting a starter ready. So, no, that wasn’t in play.”
(Photo of Domingo Germán: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)
