The Yankees wrapped up four-game split with the Rays just a week ago, but the Rays have undergone a lot of changes since then, most of them injury-related. Matt Garza didn’t pitch in the Bronx and wasn’t scheduled to pitch in the brief two-game set against the Yankees that opens at the Trop tonight, but it’s still worth noting that the team’s big off-season addition hit the DL with a nerve issue in his pitching elbow and is expected to miss at least four weeks (home-grown pitching prospect Jeff Niemann pitched well in his place last night as the Rays beat the O’s 6-2). In addition to Garza and catcher Dioner Navarro, who hit the DL in the Bronx after slipping and cutting his hand in visitor’s dugout, the Rays have also had to place DH Cliff Floyd and third-baseman Willy Aybar on the DL. Floyd, who is one of the most fragile players in the game, has a tear of the medial meniscus in his right knee. Aybar strained his left hamstring.
There’s irony in the latter injury as losing Aybar to the DL has forced the Rays to promote top prospect Evan Longoria and install him at third-base, where he’s likely to remain well into the next decade. Longoria should have opened the season in the majors, but, best I can tell, the Rays were hoping to delay the start of his arbitration clock. The Rays could have continued with that plan by installing Eric Hinske at third–Hinske did start two games at third in place of Aybar before the latter was officially placed on the DL–but it seems the Rays are quickly tiring of seeing Hinske in the field. Hinske started in right field in three of the Rays first six games, including two at Yankee Stadium, but hasn’t played the outfield in any of the team’s six games since. Instead, with Floyd on the DL and Longoria at third, it appears the Rays have adopted platoons in right and at DH with lefty Nathan Haynes and righty Justin Ruggiano splitting right field and the lefty Hinske taking Floyd’s place in the DH platoon with righty Jonny Gomes.
The end result is improved team defense, but a decrease in offense. There’s no comparison between Longoria and Aybar long-term, but Aybar was swinging the bat well in the early going, hitting .292/.370/.500 before hitting the DL. Longoria, who is 2 for 6 with a pair of walks after two major league games, could match those numbers, but as a 22-year-old rookie, he’d be hard pressed to surpass them. Hinske and Gomes are also swinging well, but squeezing them into one spot to make room for the punchless Haynes is sure to have a negative effect on the offense. What’s more, after a hot start, catcher Shawn Riggans isn’t hitting a lick. Still, the Rays have played .500 ball since leaving the Bronx and have scored 5.17 runs per game against the Mariners and Orioles while allowing just 3.83 runs per game.
Things aren’t going much better for the Yankees in terms of player injuries. Jose Molina strained his left hamstring sliding into home last night and, though he stayed in the game for several innings, now joins Jorge Posada as a catcher who can’t catch. Posada can at least hit and has gone 5 for 15 with a homer and a pair of walks as the DH over the last four games. Molina, because he can’t run (which was always true figuratively, but is now true literally), can’t even hit, which is surprisingly disappointing as he’s been perhaps the team’s hottest hitter, hitting .421 with five doubles in the last five games. The Yankees are thus forced to not only call up Chad Moeller, but to start him behind the plate. The 33-year-old Moeller is 3 for 22 on the season for triple-A Scranton and is a career .224/.284/.346 hitter in the majors.
Here’s the fun part. Molina, like Jeter and Posada before him, may not need to miss a full 15 days, so the Yankees are not putting him on the DL to make room for Moeller. Remember when Alberto Gonzalez was called up and we briefly thought the Yankees were going to put Morgan Ensberg on the DL with an ankle sprain which seemed to come out of nowhere? Well, to make room for Betemit, the Yankees are placing Wilson Betemit on the DL due to conjunctivitis (pink eye). Betemit pinch-ran last night and pink eye goes away in a few of days if properly treated. If Betemit was at risk of infecting his teammates, he wouldn’t have been around to pinch-run last night, and it’s highly suspicious that he suddenly came down with conjunctivitis in time for this unanticipated roster move. It sounds like a prank, but this one’s for real.
I had expected either Molina to hit the DL or Alberto Gonzalez to be demoted in anticipation of Derek Jeter’s return to the lineup tonight. Of course, Gonzalez is another of the team’s hottest hitters (5 for 13 with a pair of doubles and a pair of walks since being recalled) and will thus give the struggling Robinson Cano a night off at second base tonight with Jeter returning to shortstop. Ensberg hasn’t played since the team left Kansas City and has only seen action in three games all year, but I suppose with the catching situation the way it is, he couldn’t be the DL fall-guy as he may be needed as the emergency fourth catcher. With Betemit on the DL, Ensberg will be forced into action this week as Alex Rodriguez is expected to miss a few games as his wife is due to give birth to their second child. That would leave Gonzalez and whichever of the team’s four outfielders is rested in order to make room for Posada at DH as the team’s bench during those games, as Molina will be taking Jeter’s place as the unusable player on the bench.
As if that wasn’t enough, Joba Chamberlain has been placed on the bereavement list as he attends to his father Harlan, who is in critical condition following a collapse at his home last night. Putting Joba on the bereavement list allows the Yankees to call up another reliever in his absence (which they have, bringing back Jonathan Albaladejo), but also comes with a minimum three-day absence for the bereaved player (but no maximum). We’re, of course, hoping that Joba isn’t actually bereaved, but merely worried, and that Harlan returns to healthy quickly for his sake more than for that of the team.
In the meantime, by mid-week the Yankees could be starting a back-up third baseman and a third-string catcher with a catcher-free two-man bench to back them up, and be without their game-changing setup man to boot. The Yankees looked to be pulling out of their early offensive slump (they’ve averaged 4.5 runs per game over the last four compared to 2.78 over the first nine), but Molina and Gonzalez have been a big part of that, and even without Molina’s injury, that was unsustainable. Now they have to find another way to solve their offensive struggles, and they may have to do it without Rodriguez and with Moeller in the lineup.
Not so fun fact: Joe Girardi has not used the same nine men at the same nine positions in any two games this year, and with Moeller catching and Gonzalez at second, he has posted his 14th unique lineup in 14 games tonight.
Tampa Bay Rays
2008 Record: 6-6 (.500)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 7-5 (.623)
Manager: Joe Maddon
General Manager: Andrew Friedman
Home Ballpark (multi-year Park Factors): Tropicana Field (98/100)
Who’s Replaced Whom:
Evan Longoria replaces Willy Aybar (DL)
Justin Ruggiano replaces Cliff Floyd (DL)
Jeff Niemann replaces Matt Garza (DL)
25-man Roster:
1B – Carlos Peña (L)
2B – Akinori Iwamura (L)
SS – Jason Bartlett (R)
3B – Evan Longoria (R)
C – Shawn Riggans (R)
RF – Nathan Haynes (L)
CF – B.J. Upton (R)
LF – Carl Crawford (L)
DH – Jonny Gomes (R)
Bench:
L – Eric Hinske (4C)
R – Justin Ruggiano (OF)
S – Elliot Johnson (IF)
R – Mike DiFelice (C)
Rotation:
R – James Shields
R – Jeff Niemann
R – Andy Sonnanstine
R – Edwin Jackson
R – Jason Hammel
Bullpen:
R – Troy Percival
R – Al Reyes
R – Dan Wheeler
L – Trever Miller
R – Gary Glover
R – Scott Dohmann
L – J. P. Howell
15-day DL: L – Scott Kazmir, R – Matt Garza, S – Dioner Navarro (C), L – Cliff Floyd (DH), S – Willy Abyar (IF), S – Ben Zobrist (IF), L – Kurt Birkins, R – Chad Orvella
60-day DL: R – Rocco Baldelli (OF)
Typical Lineup:
L – Akinori Iwamura (2B)
L – Carl Crawford (LF)
L – Carlos Peña (1B)
R – B.J. Upton (CF)
R – Jonny Gomes (DH)
R – Evan Longoria (3B)
L – Nathan Haynes (RF)
R – Shawn Riggans (C)
R – Jason Bartlett (SS)
