After leaving Saturday’s game against the Red Sox with an abdominal strain, Luke Voit is headed to the 10-day Injured List.
Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees:
· Placed INF Luke Voit on the 10-day injured list with an abdominal strain (retroactive to 6/30).
· Recalled LHP Nestor Cortes Jr. from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
· Recalled INF Mike Ford from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 2, 2019
The injury is retroactive to Sunday, as Voit did not appear in the series finale in London and the team was off on Monday. There was sentiment that holding him out of the lineup was precautionary. “Right now if things go well in pre-game, he would be an option,” Aaron Boone said Sunday. However, it seems that the injury was worse than originally thought. Voit’s timetable to return is unknown at the moment, although we should learn more when Boone meets the media before Tuesday night’s game against the Mets.
It’s been an incredible season at the plate for Voit thus far, as he’s posted a .280/.393/.509 slash line with 17 home runs, a .382 wOBA and a 140 wRC+. Despite defensive issues, he has still managed to post a 1.6 fWAR, second in the American League among full-time first basemen. With injuries rampant throughout the lineup, Voit has been a constant, along with DJ LeMahieu. But as Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius got settled into the batting order, Giancarlo Stanton and now Voit are on the shelf.
For now, Mike Ford has been recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace Voit on the 25-man roster. He won’t play every day, as a mix of LeMahieu and Edwin Encarnacion will likely handle duties at first base. Ford struggled in 37 plate appearances back in April with the big-league club, but he’s dominated the International League thus far, posting a .318/.426/.650 slash with 19 home runs, a .443 wOBA and a 166 wRC+.
