First baseman Mark Teixeira has been a driving force behind the New York Yankees‘ high-powered offense this season, but the American League All-Star is now banged up at a critical time.
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Teixeira Out at Least Two More Weeks
Tuesday, Sept. 1
Teixeira’s resurgent season has coincided with his ability to remain healthy; however, that is now in doubt as a bruised right shin has hindered his ability to stay on the field, according to the YES Network’s Jack Curry.
The first baseman hasn’t been in the Yankees’ lineup since Aug. 26, and manager Joe Girardi indicated the slugger won’t be returning anytime soon.
According to Newsday‘s Erik Boland, Girardi told reporters the MRI showed “more than we thought” and reiterated that Teixeira will be on crutches for “a few days.”
Tex entered 2015 having missed 225 games over the previous three seasons, including all but 15 contests in 2013. Expectations for his contributions were tempered because of the notion that he had become injury-prone, but he has been fantastic to this point.
He was named to his third career All-Star team and first since 2009 after an excellent first half that saw him hit 22 home runs and 62 RBI with a .240 batting average and .350 on-base percentage.
Coincidentally, his home run and RBI totals at the break matched his output from the entire 2014 season, according to Jeff Quagliata of YES Network:
The 35-year-old slugger has always had that type of power and run production in him as an eight-time 30-homer and 100-RBI guy over the course of his career entering the season. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t approached those numbers since 2011 because of constant injuries.
Chief among them was a wrist issue, which was responsible for him missing almost the entire 2013 campaign. While his wrist is something that is likely to bother him to some degree for the rest of his career, it hasn’t been much of a problem in 2015.
In fact, Teixeira was thrilled with the state of his wrist at the midway point of the season, per Mike Vorkunov of NJ Advance Media: “It’s as good as I could ever imagine. I think so. It’s super strong. I haven’t had any issues with it. I ice it after every game because that’s just a maintenance thing for me. I’m very happy with where it is.”
Despite Teixeira’s optimism regarding his health this season, he has been bitten by the injury bug yet again. If that results in him missing a significant amount of time, then it is a huge blow for the Yanks since he is such a force as a switch-hitter in the middle of the lineup.
The Bronx Bombers have a strong offensive core that also includes Brian McCann, Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, but it can be argued that Teixeira is the key component because of his ability to drive in everyone else.
He also provides fantastic defense at first base, which makes him one of the most important cogs in the Yankees’ overall attack.
If New York is going to be a true World Series threat this season, then it will need a healthy Tex moving forward.
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