Yankees’ Sabathia may miss rest of season

Sabathia was officially placed on the disabled list before Monday’s 1-0 win over the Houston Astros and manager Joe Girardi conceded his uncertainty of seeing Sabathia throw another pitch.

Sabathia received a promising prognosis from Dr. Answorth Allen on Tuesday.

Sabathia, who exited his start on Sunday with pain in the same knee on which he had surgery in 2014, would be open to moving to a role in the bullpen should the Yankees want to go in that direction. “We knew that going in, and we knew it could rear its ugly head”. Seemingly a shell of his former self, the last time he posted both a winning record and an ERA under 4.00 in the same season was 2012. “We’ll see where he is tomorrow. It’s not for me to make”, Sabathia said. “I wasn’t sure of that going into spring training”.

Despite Sabathia holding the New York Yankees back every fifth day, the team has a 69-55 record and are tied with the Toronto Blue Jays atop the AL East. The problem is, the Blue Jays have made drastic improvements and are one of the hottest teams in the Major League Baseball at the moment. This frees them of any perceived obligation to keep Sabathia in the rotation due to his massive contract and allows them to put their best five starting pitchers in the rotation moving forward.

“The first thing you do is get him healthy, then make the best decision”, Girardi said.

“Helping this team any way I can is what I’m here to do”.

Luck ran out for Sabathia and the Yankees on Sunday and with their most experienced postseason pitcher sidelined, a group of untested stretch drive starting pitchers will try to get New York back to the playoffs.