Thursday, September 11, 2014

Shutting Down Beltran, Gardner, and Prado


The New York Yankees are finishing up their 2014 season and barring a miracle will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Yankees have lost quite a few members of their team to injuries this season and have a few members of the walking wounded as well as the team fights through September. Should the Yankees simply shut down Martin Prado, Carlos Beltran, and Brett Gardner for the rest of the season and star getting ready for 2015?

Prado has been battling a hamstring injury for more than a week now that obviously has manager Joe Girardi concerned. Prado played in the finale of the Kansas City Royals series and had three hits and ran the bases multiple times but you could tell he was protecting and nursing the injury the entire game. Now Prado is back to sitting on the bench in fear of making the problem worse and causing a more severe injury. With the Yankees seemingly out of the playoff race wouldn't it make more sense to shut him down to let the injury fully heal? I would think so as New York has Prado under team control for two more seasons after this one.

Gardner has an abdominal strain that has kept him out of games for almost a week as well and this isn't the first time this injury has flared up this season. Right before the All Star Break Gardner missed one game with the injury before taking the All Star break off to rest it. When an injury continues to flare up and re-occur that usually points to something more severe. It would be in the best interest of the Yankees and for Gardner to shut him down and make sure the injury is 100% healed before this becomes an all the time kind of injury. Gardner is under team control for quite some time in New York and they need his abdominal muscles to be at their best for his swing and his ability to run the bases.

I wrote yesterday that Beltran should be shut down simply because he is hurting the team and I want to reiterate that today. Beltran is going to be 38 years old and the more time he has to rest and rehab an elbow surgery, however minor, the better for both him and the club. Beltran stand to earn nothing in these final two weeks and the Yankees stand to earn nothing as well from Beltran playing in these final two weeks. Shut him down, get the operation and get that elbow cleaned up, and let’s work on coming back stronger and healthy in 2015.


Rest these veterans and get them back healthy for Spring Training 2015 while getting a small glimpse into the future at the same time. 60 day DL trips for these three can potentially open up three 40 man active roster spots for the likes of Robert Refsnyder, Jose Pirela, Zoilo Almonte, and others. The latter two are minor league free agents at the end of the season anyway so you would not be giving them a long term roster spot and Refsnyder deserves one anyway. I don’t believe the Yankees have the balls to pull off these moves, but they should. 

4 comments:

  1. An excellent idea, I would just do it a little differently. Beltran would definitely go to the 60 day dl to make room for either Austin, Judge, or Almonte. Then I would designate Drew and add Refsnyder. If Drew is left on the roster, Refsnyder would sit and Girardi would play a .162 hitter simply because he's a veteran. I would leave Prado and Gardner on the active roster only because if we miraculously make the playoffs, we'll want them available. Just my 2 cents.

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    1. Jeff, very good 2 cents, well spent!
      Brett, will have one heck of a time making it back this year though. His injury is very much a DL move, just because of the way he plays the game. I would have Brett and Beltran seeing a surgeon right now, have everything corrected and have them 100% ready for next year.

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  2. I love the optimism Jeff but we're not making the playoffs....

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    1. I did say miraculously. I'm optimistic, not delusional.

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