Yankees depth further tested as another outfielder hits injured list

The New York Yankees announced Thursday that outfielder Willie Calhoun has been placed on the 10-day injured due to a left quad strain. Infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera was recalled in the corresponding move.

Calhoun, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees over the winter and had his contract selected just over a week into the 2023 season. Since then, he has received 149 plate appearances in 44 games with the big league club. Calhoun has kept his strikeout rate to a 13.4 percent level while walking at a 9.4 percent clip. His .239/.309/.403 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 96, indicating he has been four percent worse than the league-average hitter.

That might not sound like a significant loss, but it actually could be for the scuffling Yankees. They have dealt with injuries to a number of players this year, including superstar Aaron Judge, who has been out of action for almost three weeks as of this writing. Several other players have also dealt with their own injuries or underperformance. Aside from Judge, the only other Yankees to have produced a higher wRC+ than Calhoun in more plate appearances are Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres. The team’s collective wRC+ of 96 is right in line with Calhoun’s and places them 19th out of the 30 clubs in the league.

The Yankees have not yet made any announcement about how much time Calhoun is expected to miss, but there seems to be a decent chance he will be out longer than the minimum stint of 10 days. The outfielder told Chris Kirschner of The Athletic that he felt his quad “pop” while running to first base in Wednesday’s game. He is scheduled for an MRI Thursday and will be receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in the coming days. There should be more specificity from the Yankees forthcoming, but it seems the issue is potentially significant.

As for Judge, manager Aaron Boone provided a Thursday update to members of the media, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Judge made an excellent catch at Dodger Stadium on June 3, crashing into the right field bullpen gate and hitting his foot on the concrete pad beneath in the process. He was diagnosed with a bruise and ligament sprain in his right big toe. Boone relayed that Judge has now advanced to pool/balance/strength work and could resume throwing and light hitting in the coming days. That seems to be encouraging progress, but there is still not much clarity on his return timeline.

Prior to injury, Judge was following up his MVP campaign with yet another excellent performance here in 2023, slashing .291/.404/.674 for a wRC+ of 189. However, that production has come in just 49 games. He missed time earlier with a hip strain and now this toe issue. As mentioned above, the club’s offense has been subpar overall this year, though the Yankees remain in the postseason hunt. They currently sport a 41-33 record, good enough to occupy a Wild Card spot, though each of the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays are within one game of New York in the standings.