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New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez suffered a right hamstring injury Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles. He’s been placed on the disabled list, and it’s unclear when he will return.

Continue for updates.

Pazos Recalled From Triple-A

Wednesday, May 4

The Yankees PR department announced that left-handed pitcher James Pazos has been recalled from Triple-A to take Rodriguez’s place on the roster. 

Rodriguez Still Providing Power Late in His Career

Rodriguez is 40 years old and past his physical prime, so any injury is reason for worry as the Yankees look to challenge for a postseason spot in the American League East. He already suffered an oblique injury earlier in the season, so this marks another setback.

Through 20 games, Rodriguez is batting .194 with five home runs and 12 RBI. 

The 22-year veteran missed the 2014 campaign due to a performance-enhancing-drug suspension, but he was impressive in 2015 with 33 home runs and 86 RBI. While his ties to performance-enhancing drugs linger over his legacy, he is one of the most prolific power hitters in MLB history.

Even at an advanced age, the Yankees will miss Rodriguez’s presence in the heart of the order. Those who hit in front of him often see better pitches because opponents don’t want to put people on base before him, which means his absence will be felt beyond his individual at-bats.

The silver lining for New York is the fact Rodriguez is primarily the designated hitter, so it doesn’t have to worry about replacing someone in the field as well. The Yankees still need to find a solid hitter to carry some of the offensive load while he heals, though.

Carlos Beltran can fill in at designated hitter on days when Aaron Hicks or Dustin Ackley plays in the outfield. The versatile Ackley can also play first base, which would allow Mark Teixeira to occupy the designated hitter role at times as well.

Like Rodriguez, Beltran and Teixeira are veteran sluggers who add proven power to the New York lineup. Beltran had 11 seasons with more than 20 home runs entering the 2016 campaign, while Teixeira had 12. If the two show consistent power in 2016, the Yankees can remain afloat in the postseason race for as long as Rodriguez remains sidelined.

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The New York Yankees finished an abysmal first month from the batter’s box by ranking last in the majors in runs scored during April for the first time since 1984, per Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats & Info).

With just 74 runs, the so-called Bronx Bombers finished with one fewer run than a struggling Atlanta Braves team that had a 5-18 record for the month.

To put this into perspective, the Braves notched just five home runs through the month of April and still managed to outscore New York (22 home runs).

Back in 1984, the Yankees overcame a slow start to rank fourth in the American League with 758 runs. The current squad may thus have some hope, even though it enters Sunday on pace for just 545 runs, with an 8-14 record to boot. 

Second baseman Starlin Castro, who was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in the offseason, is the only regular starter with a batting average above .300—and even he is only at .305.

The leadoff and No. 2 hitters, outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner, have a combined .244 batting average, though Gardner has at least drawn enough walks (11) to maintain a .369 on-base percentage.

The beauty of baseball is that there is almost always time enough to right the ship. But with their lack of depth from the rubber and struggles at the plate, the Yankees’ ship seems to be sinking at a much faster pace than others.

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A week ago, there were serious stories in serious newspapers asking how long the Boston Red Sox should wait before making a managerial change.

By Tuesday, the Red Sox were half a game out of first place in the American League East.

Baseball’s monster division isn’t what it once was, and the Red Sox had the extra advantage of four games against their designated rivals, the overmatched Atlanta Braves.

So here’s the question as the Red Sox get set to host the New York Yankees for three games, starting on Friday: Can the AL East and the schedule save the Yankees the way they’ve saved the Sox (at least for now)?

Well, the schedule won’t.

The Yankees’ designated interleague rivals are the New York Mets, who are nothing like the bottom-feeding Braves. That’s four much more difficult games to contend with.

The Yankees won’t play the Braves at all, and they won’t play most of the other hardly trying teams that make up the bottom third of the National League.

So can the AL East save the Yankees, who are about to finish April with a losing record for the first time since 2008?

Maybe, but that’s because the division isn’t what it was then. Then again, neither are the Yankees.

In the 14 years leading up to and including 2009, an AL East team played in the World Series 10 times. The Yankees had a lot to do with that, but the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays made it too.

Compare that to the last six years, when the only AL East team to win a pennant was the 2013 Red Sox.

The division is more balanced than it was a decade ago without any easy touches. The danger of a superteam running away with it seems to be much less.

A decent team can stay in the race, just as the Yankees did the last two years. But could they do that again?

As Joel Sherman pointed out in Wednesday’s New York Post, there are already worrisome signs suggesting they won’t.

The offense isn’t scoring at all, which might change. The starting rotation is shaky, but that might not change.

It’s hard to believe they’ll keep hitting .191 with runners in scoring position. No American League team in 25 years has hit under .220 with runners in scoring position over a full season. The Yankees may not be good, but they’re not that bad.

The rotation problems are a bigger concern. Michael Pineda and Nathan Eovaldi have shown the type of inconsistency that has characterized both of their careers, and Masahiro Tanaka has shown the reluctance to trust his fastball that has characterized him since he suffered a partially torn ligament in his right elbow two years ago. As for CC Sabathia, who has a 5.06 ERA, he’s 35 years old, and the early-season results simply continue a downward trend.

As of Thursday, Yankee starters had combined for a 5.13 ERA. Only the Houston Astros and a few of the dregs of the National League have been worse.

And as Sherman wrote, the big concern is all this has happened without any apparent injuries. The Yankees rotation was supposed to be vulnerable because of health issues. Instead, the pitchers have been healthy but inconsistent and ineffective.

The Red Sox have their own rotation issues behind David Price, and despite what the standings might tell you, that hasn’t changed. But the Red Sox also have a lineup that has scored the most runs in the American League (114), and that might not change.

The Yankees have scored one more run than the weak-hitting Rays and fewer runs than everyone else in the league (72).

It’s bad enough that MLB.com columnist Barry M. Bloom suggested the Yankees trade Aroldis Chapman, who still hasn’t thrown a pitch for them, for someone who could spark the offense. That’s not happening, but by the time Chapman shows up for his suspension-delayed Yankees debut on May 9, the idea of having a killer end of the bullpen might not look as great as it did when the Yankees traded for Chapman last December.

The Yankees could turn seventh-inning leads into wins, and maybe they could even make sixth-inning leads look safe. Fine. Do you know how many times the Yankees have led a game after six innings so far this season?

Five. Five out of 20.

Even the awful Braves have led seven times after six innings. The Red Sox have led 11 times. The Toronto Blue Jays have led 14 times.

The Jays have actually lost five of those 14 games, which is another reminder that every AL East team has significant flaws. These aren’t the Yankees and Red Sox of 2003-04 or the Yankees of the late 1990s.

It’s a forgiving division, something to remember when you start thinking a team needs drastic changes because of a few losses in April.

But even in a forgiving division, some team is going to be the worst. Right now in the East, that team is the Yankees.

Check back in a few weeks (or months) to see whether it has changed.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on Tuesday he would ban shifts in baseball if he was the commissioner of MLB, according to Andrew Marchand of ESPN.com.

“It is an illegal defense, like basketball. Guard your man, guard your spot,” he said, comparing the shift to basketball’s defensive three-second rule, per Marchand. “If I were commissioner, they would be illegal.”

Yankees starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi lost his no-hitter in the seventh inning Monday evening after the Texas Rangers‘ Nomar Mazara hit a ball through the gap at shortstop that was vacant because the Yankees were running the shift.

While Girardi conceded that he would continue employing the defensive tactic while it was legal, he added: “I just think the field was built this way for a reason, with two on one side and two on the other.”

The shift has also been employed successfully against the Yankees at a consistent rate, another reason for Girardi’s ire.

As Marchand noted, the shift “has hurt the Yankees more than any team the last three seasons. The Yankees have been shifted more than 1,000 times than any other club. Their .269 average is the worst over that span.”

Don’t expect the shift to go away anytime soon, however. While MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred considered banning the shift before taking over his post in 2014, per Marchand, he’s since noted: “When I talked about the defensive shifts, I let myself get into a situation where I speculated about a change I wasn’t serious about.”

Indeed, the shift has become a crucial defensive strategy for many teams. It is most often employed against power hitters who have a tendency to pull the ball, increasing the likelihood that what might otherwise have been a hit will instead find its way to a newly positioned infielder.

There is a trade-off, of course, as the team is left with just one infielder on the other side of the field, meaning a well-placed bunt or opposite-field hit is almost guaranteed to be a hit. That strategic balance is why the shift will likely remain a legal part of the game. 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez was removed from Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays with left oblique stiffness. It is uncertain when he will return to action.

Continue for updates.

Rodriguez Out vs. Rangers

Monday, April 25

Marly Rivera of ESPN reported that Rodriguez will not be in the lineup against Texas on Monday.

Rodriguez Undergoes MRI

Sunday, April 24

Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News reported that the results of Rodriguez’s MRI came back negative.

Girardi Comments on Rodriguez’s Injury

Sunday, April 24

“Yeah, I worry,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters. “Hopefully whatever it is is really, really minor.”

Rodriguez Bounced Back in 2015 After Suspension

After missing the 2014 season because of a performance-enhancing drug suspension, Rodriguez wielded impressive power in his return to the Bronx. The 40-year-old posted a slash line of .250/.356/.486 while driving in 86 runs and slamming 33 home runs.

When he bashed his 30th home run on Sept. 8 of last season, A-Rod tied Hank Aaron for the most seasons (15) in MLB history with at least 30 dingers.

This season, however, Rodriguez has gotten off to a slow start and is batting .145 with two home runs and six RBI.

And while that production may not justify the $21 million he will earn in 2016 and 2017 before one of the most infamous contracts in baseball history expires, he’s proved to be serviceable in several other ways.

“He is a veteran presence in the clubhouse that likes to take the new players and young players under his wing,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on the Baseball Tonight podcast, per NJ Advance Media’s Joe Giglio. “He’s really an extra coach. He helped speed up the adjustment process of guys adjusting to New York. He’s impactful in that way.”

The Yankees offense could suffer without Rodriguez, but a lineup with table-setters Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner and power bats like Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira is already struggling. New York entered Sunday ranked 17th in the majors with 4.06 runs per game after it finished second last season with 4.72 runs per contest.

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The Jet stole home! The Jet stole home!

In this case, “The Jet” was not beloved Sandlot character Benny Rodriguez but the New York Yankees‘ own Jacoby Ellsbury.

With two on and his team trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday night, the center fielder went for it against Tampa Bay Rays lefty Matt Moore.

Per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, Ellsbury said:

You’re trying to score a run, but guys get fired up. It doesn’t happen very often. As a player, you’re like, ‘Hey, did that just happen?’ And then when you’re running down the line, you’re just hoping you’ve got a big enough lead and everything works out. It’s exciting. It’s the ultimate adrenaline rush for a basestealer.

He would know. The 32-year-old speedster stole home against the Yankees in April 2009 as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees went on to win the game 6-3.

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Sports, although inherently competitive, are occasionally sprinkled with no-win scenarios.

Trying to outrun the fastest outfield throw ever recorded in baseball is one of them.

The Oakland Athletics‘ Danny Valencia probably could have never imagined that, following a Yonder Alonso fly to left field, he’d be pursued in his sprint from third base to home by a 105.5 mph ball.

But reality became very clear when Yankees left fielder Aaron Hicks unloaded the blazing throw with pitching-caliber speed, and a likely winded Valencia was tagged out. 

Life comes at you fast. Real fast. 

[MLB, h/t Deadspin]

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Nick Swisher has fallen on hard times over the last two years, but the former All-Star is getting another chance to revive his career by returning to the New York Yankees. 

Per Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News, Swisher’s minor league deal with the Yankees is official, and he will report to Triple-A Scranton on Thursday. 

Since playing 145 games for the Cleveland Indians in 2013, Swisher has missed 151 games the past two years due to knee injuries. He was traded to the Atlanta Braves in August, appearing in 46 games and hitting .195/.349/.339. 

Since the Braves have undertaken a massive rebuilding effort, the team released Swisher one week before Opening Day and with $15 million left on his contract.

Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez told MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that if Swisher is “with an American League team, he fits. But it would have been tough to get at-bats for him here.”

MLB Network’s Jon Heyman heard something similar from a rival general manager coming out of spring training:

While there is not a lot of recent success at the MLB level for Swisher, there was a time when he was one of the most consistent hitters for years, per Baseball-Reference.com:

There’s an inherent risk the Yankees are taking in signing Swisher, because he has to prove his knees are capable of handling the grind of playing 162 games. The 35-year-old used to be one of MLB’s most durable players, as he appeared in at least 145 games every season from 2006-13. 

However, because the Yankees only gave Swisher a minor league deal, the team can cut bait easily if things don’t work out.

Age has certainly caught up to Swisher, though he was at least healthy enough to play in 17 games during spring training before being released. He’s got to be in a situation that doesn’t ask him to use his legs often, either as a first baseman who gets one day off each week or as a full-time designated hitter. 

The Yankees have plenty of those types of players already with Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran, but Teixeira missed 237 games the previous three seasons, and Beltran didn’t play more than 133 games in either of his first two seasons in New York.

If Swisher is able to stay on the field, he will be able to provide a solid on-base percentage because of his patience in the batter’s box. There won’t be much power because his legs aren’t as strong as they once were, but teams will always take a chance on someone who takes good at-bats and gets on base. 

Swisher’s best seasons came as a member of the Yankees from 2009-12, so it’s no surprise he would hope to revive his career wearing pinstripes. 

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It was the first week of the season, a little early for bold statements. But Starlin Castro was already off to a great start with the New York Yankees, so why not?

“We want to be the best middle infield we can be,” Castro said, referring to his new partnership with shortstop Didi Gregorius. “We want to be the best middle infield in the major leagues.”

Maybe they can be, maybe they can’t. But the fact that Castro could even bring up the possibility in the first week of the 2016 season shows how smart and fortunate the Yankees have been the last two winters.

They needed a shortstop because Derek Jeter was retiring and they had no immediate successor in their system. They needed a second baseman because in the first two years after Robinson Cano left for Seattle, they used 10 players at the position without ever finding one they wanted to keep.

They knew they wanted to get younger and more athletic, but how do you do that if your farm system isn’t ready to produce players at the positions you need?

Simple, if the Arizona Diamondbacks decide they’re overloaded at shortstop and will move Gregorius at age 24. Simple, if the Chicago Cubs choose Addison Russell over Castro at shortstop and Ben Zobrist over Castro at second base when Castro’s just 25.

Gregorius and Castro were young and athletic. They were talented. They also came to the Yankees with question marks, which is why the Yankees were able to get Castro for pitcher Adam Warren and infielder Brendan Ryan, and Gregorius in a three-team deal that cost them only pitcher Shane Greene.

Warren is a useful pitcher, but he didn’t fit in the Yankee rotation and wasn’t going to pitch at the back end of the bullpen, either. Greene has a good arm, but he wasn’t going to find his way into the rotation.

The cost was more than reasonable—as long as Gregorius and Castro developed into a double-play combination the Yankees could win with.

It’s too early to say they have, but the results look good so far. Gregorius started slow last year, but he emerged from Jeter’s shadow to have a solid first season in New York. Castro started fast, becoming the first player in Yankee history to drive in seven runs in his first two games with the team.

“Starlin Castro is playing tee-ball right now,” Yankees right fielder Carlos Beltran said.

Castro and Gregorius have looked comfortable together and comfortable as Yankees. Even if it’s a little early to put them in the conversation as baseball’s best double-play combination—it’s hard to beat Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros—it may not be too early to say the Yankees have a middle-infield duo that can last.

They’re certainly young enough. Gregorius turned 26 in February. Castro just got his 1,000th major league hit, but he only turned 26 last month.

Castro was a three-time All-Star before he turned 25, which speaks to his ability and potential. But he also had a reputation for swinging at everything and being slow to adapt.

Gregorius made top-prospect lists when he was coming up through the minor leagues with the Cincinnati Reds. But he was inconsistent enough in three seasons in Arizona that the Diamondbacks (and other teams) wondered if he would ever develop into a quality major league shortstop.

“They both came with questions,” one American League executive said. “That’s why they were available.”

For now, it sure looks like the Yankees bought low on two undervalued talents. For now, it looks like the Yankees benefitted from the Diamondbacks’ preference for playing Nick Ahmed at shortstop, and from the Cubs’ need to move Castro after acquiring Russell and Zobrist.

The Cubs got Russell from the Oakland A’s in July 2014 in the Jeff Samardzija-Jason Hammel trade, and almost immediately, there was talk that he’d replace Castro at shortstop. The switch finally came last August, at a point when Castro’s performance had slipped both offensively and defensively.

“He knew there was a young player that was very talented behind him that might move him out of his spot,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters recently. “I think that’s difficult for players to accept.”

As it turns out, the move may have helped Castro in the long run. When Cubs manager Joe Maddon put Russell at short, he started playing Castro at second base. The two months at second helped convince the Yankees he could play there full-time, and he ended up getting a new start with a team and fanbase that were ready to welcome him.

“It’s a good opportunity to be in this organization,” Castro said. “I just want to be the player I used to be.”

It’s early, but that’s what Castro has looked like so far. It’s early, but he and Gregorius look like a double-play combination the Yankees can win with.

Not bad for a couple of guys picked up on the cheap.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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It appears that all the New York Yankees offense needed to get going this season was a one-game warm-up. Also, somebody other than Dallas Keuchel on the mound for the opposition.

And now that these two demands have been met, we’re seeing just what these Bronx Bombers are capable of.

After Keuchel, the reigning American League Cy Young winner, silenced them in their opener Tuesday, the Yankees’ bats woke up in a big way in the final two games of their series against the Houston Astros. A 17-hit parade led to a 16-6 win Wednesday, and the Yankees cranked out 12 more hits in an 8-5 win Thursday.

As is usually the case whenever there’s an offensive outburst like this, the question isn’t who’s been hitting. It’s who hasn’t been hitting.

Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran both went deep Wednesday. Teixeira and Brian McCann went deep Thursday. Those two and Didi Gregorius all have four hits in their last eight at-bats. Jacoby Ellsbury has three hits in his last 10 at-bats. After going hitless to start the season, Alex Rodriguez broke through with a pair of hits Thursday.

But while that’s an awful lot of heat, nobody is as hot as Starlin Castro. The Yankees’ new second baseman was the big star in Wednesday’s rout, tallying four hits and picking up three of his five RBI on his first home run of 2016. On Thursday, he launched his second:

Add in the two-run double that Castro had in the Yankees’ opener, and he now has seven hits in 12 at-bats with two home runs and eight RBI. With numbers like those, all the jokes on Twitter about his inevitable Yankeeography almost have to be taken seriously.

This is the best the Yankees could have hoped for after bringing Castro aboard in a classic upside-play trade with the Chicago Cubs in December. And though his production has resembled a roller coaster throughout his career, it’s hard to ignore that he’s actually been raking for a while now.

After getting off to a slow start, Castro finished 2015 by hitting .353 with a .968 OPS over the final six weeks of the season. Then came a .367 average and a .944 OPS this spring. This brings us to his current state, which Beltran best characterized Wednesday.

“Starlin Castro is playing tee-ball right now,” he told Anthony Rieber of Newsday.

There are reasons for Castro’s turnaround. One is that the three-time All-Star obviously has plenty of underlying talent. And even before Castro told Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media all about it in March, Matt Goldman of Beyond the Box Score noticed that Castro had traded his wide-open stance in the box for a closed stance. 

It’s always a good sign whenever a hot streak from a talented player can be traced back to a tangible adjustment. At best, it means said hot streak may have lasting power. At worst, it means it’s not so surprising.

And while we’re on the topic of not being surprised, we should also acknowledge it’s not the biggest shocker to see the entire Yankees lineup lighting it up.

“This is what we’re capable of,” Teixeira said after Wednesday’s rout, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “You’re not going to do that every night, especially against a good team, but when we have the entire lineup that’s clicking, you’re going to have a couple of nights like this, and they feel good.”

Indeed. The Yankees did score more runs than any other team except the all-powerful (literally) Toronto Blue Jays last year, after all. And with Castro taking Stephen Drew’s place at second base, there’s no denying the collective star power of a starting nine that looks like this:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Brett Gardner, LF
3. Alex Rodriguez, DH
4. Mark Teixeira, 1B
5. Brian McCann, C
6. Carlos Beltran, RF
7. Chase Headley, 3B
8. Starlin Castro, 2B
9. Didi Gregorius, SS

Manager Joe Girardi must feel good every time he writes down these names. A-Rod (fingers crossed), Teixeira and Beltran might be future Hall of Famers. Ellsbury, Gardner, McCann and Castro have been All-Stars. Headley hasn’t, but he was an MVP candidate once. Only Gregorius doesn’t have accolades to his name, but that will change if he keeps hitting like he has been since last year’s All-Star break.

And if all goes well, this lineup will be one of the most productive offenses in the American League. According to Baseball Prospectus, only the Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox are projected for more runs. FanGraphs isn’t as optimistic, but its projections still peg the Yankees as having one of the top 10 offenses in Major League Baseball.

That “if all goes well” part, however, is equal parts caveat and elephant in the room. 

It’s a good sign that Castro’s hot hitting can be traced back to a tangible adjustment, but that doesn’t necessarily free him from his history. His high highs traditionally come with low lows. And though the Yankees offense was mostly good in 2015, there’s no forgetting how much it all fell apart in the end.

After collectively OPS’ing .766 through the season’s first four months, the Yankees offense managed just a .705 OPS down the stretch. Age and durability (or lack thereof) were the culprits. Ellsbury and Gardner struggled to recover from nagging injuries. Teixeira was lost to a broken leg. Rodriguez and McCann stayed healthy, but both hit a wall.

The same fate could befall the Yankees this season. As Jon Tayler wrote at SI.com, it’s “hard not to be concerned about the durability and productivity of a lineup in which Castro and Gregorius are the only hitters under 30.” And with players like Ellsbury, Teixeira, Gardner and Beltran, the Yankees also have some injury proneness in their lineup.

For now, though, the Yankees should be too distracted by what’s going right in the present to worry about what could go wrong in the future. They came into the year needing their offense to be as good in reality as it looked on paper. And with Castro fitting in so well with what was already there, they’re clearly getting their wish.

With better luck than they had in 2015, it’ll stay that way.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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