Yankees replacements stepping up kept injuries from sinking season again like 2023

In the moment, it felt like an omen — and it turned out to be. Just not as expected.

When the Yankees announced in spring training that Gerrit Cole had elbow discomfort, the concern was palpable. The rest of the rotation was worrisome and seemingly thin. So, it felt as if Cole was the Yankees’ most indispensable player — even more than Aaron Judge or Juan Soto.

When Cole flew cross-country to see Dr. Neal ElAttrache, he was fearing the worst — structural damage, Tommy John surgery, his complete absence for the 2024 season. But the diagnosis was favorable, nerve irritation that would need medicine, rehab and a few months missed.

What followed is central to why the Yankees are returning to the playoffs, are probable to win the AL East and perhaps post the league’s best record.

In 2024, the Yankees were not devastated by injury. Quite the opposite. The Cole injury was not a bellwether. And when there was injury, what emerged often was not a bandage, but a solution.

And though most playoff-bound clubs are dealing with worsening injury situations as October nears, the returns this month of Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt, Ian Hamilton and Jon Berti have made the Yankees healthier and deeper than at any point this year.

Now huge proviso: There is still a week to play, and you see how quickly a club can go from healthy to not — Thursday, for example, Soto banged his knee running into a wall in Seattle, and Jake Cousins left the game with pec tightness. Neither was initially viewed as serious.

So keep in mind that one errant fastball to a wrist or a misstep on the bases could flip a healthy script.

But as the final regular-season week began, the Yankees had six starting pitchers and were trying to deduce which three will align behind Cole in October. Meanwhile, two healthy pitchers, Cody Poteet and Lou Trivino, were being slow-played at the end of their injury rehab to provide just-in-case depth. And the one Yankees IL move made in September — DJ LeMahieu (hip) — actually made the positional group more versatile and better.

Besides the Yankees, the other strong contender who has had positive health momentum of late is San Diego — with the effective returns of Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Fernando Tatis Jr.

Conversely, consider the other New York team — which is dealing with a late-season injury to their most vital player, Francisco Lindor, plus the losses of Dedniel Nunez and Jeff McNeil, and the uncertainty when and if Kodai Senga and Paul Blackburn are returning.

The West Coast Yankees, the Dodgers, basically have a rotation on the IL with, among others, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Gavin Stone. The Orioles faded in the AL East race largely due to injury — notably to their rotation (Kyle Bradish, John Means, Grayson Rodriguez), but also their positional group (Jorge Mateo, Ryan Mountcastle, Ramon Urias and Jordan Westburg).

The Mets are dealing with Lindor, but the Braves have been without ace Spencer Strider since April, NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. since May, Ozzie Albies since July (the switch-hitter was due back this weekend to bat just righty), and A.J Minter and Austin Riley since August.

The Yankees have not endured that level of injury devastation, and what they did incur, they have compensated for generally well.

Gil pitched like a Cy Young candidate for the 2 ¹/₂ months that the defending AL Cy Young winner, Cole, healed from the elbow malady. When Jose Trevino was lost for five weeks with a quad strain, Austin Wells went from a catching timeshare to the starter — and eventually the cleanup hitter. Gil and Wells are going to finish top-five for AL Rookie of the Year … and one or the other might win the award.

Jonathan Loaisiga was lost to a season-ending elbow injury a week into the season, and the Yankees did something they have been superb at for years — they found arms they liked off the trash heap and maximized their performance. That began for Ian Hamilton and Luke Weaver last season and carried over, plus Cousins and Tim Hill (like Hamilton) were pitchers who failed with the MLB-worst White Sox and became substantial contributors to the Yankees bullpen.

This is all a U-turn from last year — arguably the Yankees’ worst team in three decades.

In a contentious conversation with reporters last November at the GM meetings, a feisty Brian Cashman said there was a need to separate the real reasons the 2023 Yankees missed the playoffs at 82-80 and the “bull[bleep].” And he explained “Injuries aren’t bull[bleep].” He then listed a litany of injuries to key personnel such as Judge, LeMahieu, Trevino, Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes.

Cashman’s observation was accurate — and also a bad alibi. If you employ older or injury-prone players, they are likely going to fulfill their pedigree. So no surprise, for example, that LeMahieu, Rodon, Stanton, Frankie Montas and Luis Severino served long IL stints in 2023 — remember the GM himself ended up having to smooth over a relationship because he noted that Stanton was injury-prone and getting hurt annually was part of his portfolio. Plus, the 2023 Yankees dealt with freakish injuries to Judge and Rizzo.

But it also was a poor look to make this excuse because the Rangers had devastating injuries and won the World Series, the Rays did and on a shoestring payroll won 99 games, and so did the Dodgers, who won 100.

Those Yankees simply did not overcome the injuries with depth of talent or character. This year has been different. The number of key players lost was less. And the step up was better.

Judge, despite playing lots of center field, stayed healthy and might win a second AL MVP. Did anyone have Cortes, Rodon and Marcus Stroman combining for 90 starts? Raise up that hand high if you had Cousins, Hill and Weaver combining to give the Yankees an 11-4 record in 128 games and 159 ¹/₃ innings with a 2.60 ERA.

When Cole went down in March, the Yankees thought the worst. But they are going to play in October because the omen was neither that injury nor what was to come was going to overwhelm the Yankees, in part because on a few key occasions the players who stepped in, stood out.