Yankees injury luck already unfortunately spilling into 2023

The 2023 season has yet to start, and the Yankees are already getting hit by injuries.

2022 was not a particularly kind year to the New York Yankees when it came to injury luck. Thankfully, Aaron Judge appeared in almost every game and put together a season that we’ll remember forever. But pieces like Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, and D.J. Lemahieu all missed 30 games or more.

That’s just the regular position players, too. Pitching was an incredibly sore spot, with starters Luis Severino and Domingo German missing much of the season. Several relievers were in and out of action with bumps and bruises. And who could forget Aroldis Chapman missing time thanks to an infected tattoo wound?

Well, that misfortune is spilling over to this year as well, with Frankie Montas already expected to miss the first month of the season with shoulder inflammation according to Dan Martin and Jon Heyman of the New York Post. They also reported he is 8-10 weeks behind in his offseason training.

Yankees down a starter to begin the year is bad news

The Yankees certainly want to get back in year 1 of Aaron Judge’s captaincy and make a World Series push after being swept in the ALCS last year. A hot start would do a lot to help make that happen, and Montas is one of the parts of the rotation the organization is highly optimistic about after acquiring him in a mid-season trade last season.

Unfortunately, the team never quite saw what Montas was capable of in pinstripes due to injuries last year as well. He went 1-3 in eight starts with a 6.25 ERA. Already in his early Yankees career, he’s going to need to shed the injury-prone label, perhaps something New York should have seen coming considering he’s started more than 20 games just twice in his career.

Luckily, the Yankees should have a solid enough rotation to hold things down until Montas is healthy. Gerrit Cole is still here, Nestor Cortes settled with the team in arbitration, and the Yankees also signed Carlos Rodon this offseason.

Still, you’d love to have a healthy Montas ready to go for the season start.