New York Yankees Chris Stewart avoids DL

As expected, New York Yankees catcher Chris Stewart has dodged a bullet and will not be placed on the 15-day disabled list after injuring his left groin. This news was confirmed today by the New York Post’s George A. King III, and Stewart is being listed as the team’s backup catcher behind the young and talented Austin Romine. The Yankees are designating Stewart as “day-to-day” with the groin injury, but he will likely only miss about three days.

Stewart slid into third base awkwardly during Thursday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, and the Yankees catcher underwent an MRI recently. Thankfully, the results came in “clean” yesterday, and the New York Posts’s piece is just confirmation of what we expected; Stewart will indeed miss the DL and will only miss a few games.

Manager- and former catcher- Joe Girardi told the Post, “It’s really hard to go without a catcher for three days because a lot of things can happen. There’s a chance you won’t see [Stewart] on the field for a couple of days to let it calm down. In an emergency he can catch.”

The Yankees will roll with Romine starting until Stewart is healthy again, but they won’t carry more than two catchers on the roster. If worst comes to worst and Romine ends up going down, then the Yankees will use Alberto Gonzalez at catcher in the interim. As for Stewart, he says he’s doing fine and stated that he has some issues running, but that those issues should be cleared in a few days.