Monday Evening Injury News Roundup (UPDATED)

BTW, Cashman said CC is going to see Dr. Andrews as a precuation, not because something got worse.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 12, 2014

Hopefully this doesn't become a regular feature on the site, but there was a lot of Yankee injury news this afternoon.

- The biggest story, to me at least, is the one above about CC Sabathia going to have his knee looked at by Dr. Andrews.  The team is saying it's just a precautionary move, but anytime the name "Dr. Andrews" is involved, that's simply not the case.

- Mark Teixeira admitted his legs felt tired this weekend and I can say that from what I saw of him rounding third yesterday afternoon, I thought he had actually hurt himself.  He's out of the lineup tonight with tightness in his groin, but Joe says he could be back in tomorrow.  We'll see.

- Last but not least, Joe announced earlier today that Michael Pineda will be out longer than the original 3-4 week recovery estimate.  He started a throwing program over the weekend, on flat ground, and there is no timetable for when he'll be on a mound or back in games.  This is just the next move in the series of careful ones the Yanks have made since his shoulder injury.  Can't really blame them.

** UPDATE 9:59 PM- Via Joe's postgame presser, Shawn Kelley is still not ready to return to game action and is day-to-day with back tightness.  According to Joe, Kelley "doesn't have the flexibility to finish his pitches."

- Also, Carlos Beltran left tonight's game early after hyperextending his right elbow taking swings in the batting cage.  He went for an MRI and the team is awaiting results.

- One more.  Ichiro was not available tonight because he has a sore knee and sore back from his sliding catch attempt yesterday.  Great.  Just fucking great. **

Carlos Beltran Has To Be Hurt, Right?

(Not good.  Screen cap courtesy of MLB.com)

Carlos Beltran woke up this morning with the unfortunate distinction of being one of 2 negative WAR everyday players in the Yankee lineup (Soriano is the other).  After a blistering start to his season in which he generated most of the power production from the middle of the batting order, Beltran has been slumping badly for the last 2 weeks and has seen his batting line slip to .240/.292/.440.  While my analysis last Monday showed there were shifts in BIP distribution and most likely approach that were causing the slump, there may be an even simpler explanation for Beltran's troubling decline.

An Airing Of Grievances From A Frustrating Weekend At Miller Park

(Avoiding this dude on Saturday Friday night was literally the only good play Jeter made all weekend.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

For those who didn't know, my family came out to Milwaukee this past weekend for the Yankees-Brewers series.  They hadn't been out here in a few years and our favorite baseball team coming out to my neck of the woods was as good a reason as any to break that streak.  The girlfriend was also along for the ride, so with her meeting the fam for the first time and them meeting her for the first time, it was a pretty big social event.

More relevant to this post than that were my expectations for the series.  Despite losing the DH and coming in not playing the best baseball in May, those expectations were very high.  The Brewers were 4-6 in their last 10 games before this series and had been playing .500 baseball for the past few weeks after their white hot start.  I thought the Yankees were set up perfectly to come in off their series win in Anaheim, get another road series win, and set themselves up for an extended run of success against a relatively weak schedule over the next few weeks.  They got the W on Friday night, but for the most part these 3 games were not encouraging.  All in all, the weekend was a constant series of reminders of just how flawed a ballclub the Yankees are.

Already Broken News: Sabathia To The 15-Day DL

Didn't even see this yesterday before I passed out, but the Yankees put CC Sabathia on the disabled list with fluid in his right knee.  He went for an MRI after his start on Saturday night, which showed the fluid in the knee, but fortunately there's no structural damage.

For that reason, the team is optimistic that CC will be out for the minimum of 15 days, but you never know with older pitchers.  Even if it is a simple drain and rest and he misses the minimum amount of time, this is an area of concern moving forward.  Sabathia has battled health problems over the last 2 plus seasons and his right knee is his plant knee.  If there's fluid buildup now, it seems likely that there will be more or possibly more severe issues there later in the year.

The only good news here is that maybe the time off will give CC a chance to correct his fastball command problems.  They've been the bane of his existence this year.  The bad news is that now the Yankees are without 60% of their Opening Day rotation.  Alfredo Aceves is expected to take CC's spot in the rotation, and it seems like Chase Whitley will get called up to take Al's spot in the bullpen.