Michael King’s Injury, the Yankees may have Avoided the worst-case Scenario

Tuesday July 26, 2022

According to Jon Heyman of the Washington Post, King’s ulnar collateral ligament is “said to look pretty good for a pitcher.”

That means King will most likely only require surgery to repair. The right-hander will miss the rest of the season as a result of the surgery, but he will be ready for next year spring training.

The Yankees were concerned that King’s UCL would sustain enough damage to necessitate Tommy John surgery, which would’ve kept him out until at least 2023.

As it stands, King’s injury is just the most recent blow to the Yankees’ bullpen.

Chad Green is out due to Tommy John surgery, and the Yankees are still waiting for Zack Britton to return from elbow surgery he had last year. Miguel Castro is also sidelined indefinitely due to a strained right shoulder.

In the meantime, Aroldis Chapman remained a shell of him for nearly a full season, and Jonathan Loaisiga has yet to match his 2021 season effectiveness.

Ron Marinaccio, who recently returned from right shoulder inflammation, has provided a much-needed boost to the Yankees.

Clarke Schmidt has shown commitment in a range of roles and has been pressed back into bullpen duty after being developed as a beginner with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. And Albert Abreu has shown glimpses of the player the Yankees expected him to be this season.

Still, they’ll be putting a lot of pressure on the bullpen’s dependable veteran arms, such as closer Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge, though help could be on the way before the Aug. 2 deadline.

Domingo German will start for the Yankees at Citi Field on Wednesday, as expected. Manager Aaron Boone had hinted as much, but waited until Tuesday to make it official.

It will be another difficult test for the right-hander, who struggled in his season debut, giving up 5 runs in three innings.

The right-hander hasn’t pitched effectively since 2019 and was sidelined for the first half of this season due to right shoulder impingement.

Gleyber Torres took the DH spot on Tuesday, but Boone said the second baseman is fine physically. Torres’ power has been mostly absent recently, with him going 5-for-26 in his past 6 games.

In his recent three games, he had two multi-hit games.

Aaron Judge came into Tuesday having hit four home runs in his previous four games, continuing to torment opposing pitchers. In the first inning of Tuesday’s Subway Series game against the Mets, Judge homered off Taijuan Walker. In his previous seven games, he was also 14-for-25 with two doubles, six home runs, and 15 RBIs.

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