The 2019 New York Yankees are a prime example of this. They've only played a month, one sixth of the season, yet that month seems like it has taken forever. Mainly because there's a new injury everyday. I've seriously never seen anything like this before. They have a bona fide All-Star team on the DL, and that list just keeps growing! Among position players, they're down to four Opening Day starters (and some of the replacements have also gotten hurt), and some of the lineups they're putting on the field look like they're from the seventh inning of a Spring Training game.
Every team has to deal with injuries. That's just a fact of life over the course of 162 games. But losing so many key people so early, all for a significant amount of time, is really pretty absurd. It tests your depth to be sure. But that depth only goes so far. At one point two weeks ago, every position player on the 40-man roster was either active or on the DL. Every! Single! One! (Third-string catcher Kyle Higashioka is currently the only non-active, non-injured position player.)
But the games aren't going to stop just because two-thirds of your projected starting lineup is injured. Somebody's gotta play. And the guys that are have taken full advantage of their opportunity.
Hence the berth of the "Next Man Up" Yankees. We've grown to love these guys almost to the point where we're going to miss them when everyone else is back and they're gone. Because they're not just keeping positions warm. They're producing. To the point where Aaron Boone is going to have some decisions to make as the Yankee regulars get healthy and the DL shrinks (or players simply trade places).
They aren't selling "Next Man Up" shirts at Yankee Stadium yet. At least they weren't before the West Coast trip. But that could easily change as early as Friday when they return home. Either way "Next Man Up" hasn't just been the team's mantra for the month of April. It's going to be a rallying cry all season. Hopefully one that lasts until October.
So who are some of these next men up? Mike Tauchman, who they got from the Rockies on the last day of Spring Training to be a fourth outfielder and is now, for the time-being at least, the everyday right fielder. Mike Ford, a career Minor Leaguer who pitched and played first base at Princeton. Thairo Estrada, a rookie who wasn't supposed to be called up this early. Tyler Wade, who thought he had made the team out of Spring Training, only to have Tauchman get his roster spot. Gio Urshela, who was on Cleveland's 2016 World Series team. Cameron Maybin, a veteran who they traded for after they were down to literally two outfielders (Brian Cashman even admitted they picked Maybin because (a) he wouldn't cost them a prospect and (b) he could get on a plane to Anaheim the fastest).
I haven't even mentioned Clint Frazier. One of the Yankees' most-prized prospects ever since they first traded for him three years ago, he's always been the victim of a numbers game. Until this year. He finally got his opportunity to play everyday and he was thriving, that is until he became the latest resident of the DL. And how about DJ LeMahieu? A former All-Star and NL batting champion with the Rockies, he signed with the Yankees as a free agent knowing he didn't have a position. He didn't even start on Opening Day! But he quickly went from utility guy to indispensable leadoff hitter.
And how about Domingo German? When they found out the severity of Severino's injury and how he'll be out much longer than originally thought, there were a lot of people (myself included) who panicked and wanted them to pull the trigger on Dallas Keuchel. Well, there's a reason why Brian Cashman is the Yankees' GM and I'm not. Because German, the team's sixth starter, would make the AL All-Star team if selections were being made right now.
Speaking of making the April All-Star team, it turns out Luke Voit's monster final two months in 2018 weren't a fluke. One of the last men standing from the Opening Day starting lineup, he's reached base in every game this season and is third in the AL in RBIs. Meanwhile, Gary Sanchez has belted eight home runs (including a monster grand slam in San Francisco on Saturday), Gleyber Torres has seamlessly transitioned over to shortstop (which, granted is his natural position), and Brett Gardner has ended up starting practically every game in center field (and recently moved into the 3-hole in the lineup) despite the Yankees' original plans for him this season.
Do any of the "Next Man Up" Yankees make me miss Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar? Of course not! This is a team that has its sights set on the World Series. And everyone knows it's Judge and Stanton that'll get them there. Not Tauchman and Ford and Estrada.
If this season does end with a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes, though, the contributions of Tauchman and Ford and Estrada and the rest of the "Next Man Up" Yankees won't be forgotten. They likely won't still be around for that parade. We'll be lucky if still we remember their names then. But they'll have been just as big a part of it as anybody.
This isn't last season. No one's in danger of losing his job the way Brandon Drury did. When the starters come back, the "Next Man Up" Yankees will give way. They'll either be sent back to the Minors, released or traded, and the Yankee lineup will once again boast all the Bronx Bomber sluggers who set the Major League record for home runs last year.
By necessity, the "Next Man Up" Yankees have been doing things a different way. But one thing has remained the same. They're winning games. And that's the most important thing. They may not be around for the postseason, but, should the Yankees get there (as expected), the "Next Man Up" bunch will be a big reason why they did.
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