Although the 2019 season is roughly six months away, the Yankees will already be without Didi Gregorius.
On Friday at Yankee Stadium during the organization’s postmortem press conference, it was revealed that Gregorius tweaked his right elbow early in the Division Series against Boston. An MRI showed a small tear, and surgery was recommended.
An interesting side note: Brian Cashman said when the Yankees acquired Gregorius from Arizona, his medicals showed he had a small tear in the elbow, but it was asymptomatic. He clearly played with no issues for several years before tweaking it at Fenway.
Aaron Boone said he’s optimistic that Didi can play “the bulk of the season”, and Cashman followed that up by saying Didi would be expected back in the summer of 2019.
Didi provides solid defense and a strong lefty bat in a right-handed heavy lineup, so this is obviously a blow on both sides of the ball. Gleyber Torres is a candidate to move over to shortstop, but this also increases the speculation of Manny Machado coming to the Bronx.
Cashman called Torres “by far the best player” the Yankees currently have to play in place of Didi.
Cashman isn’t revealing much more yet about the team’s strategy for short or long term plans there.
— Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) October 12, 2018