Please place Swisher on the DL

By On May 1, 2012 · 10 Comments · In Roster Decisions

On Sunday, exited the Yankee game against the Tigers after tweaking his hamstring on a swing. He stayed in to take a walk, but was removed by Joe Girardi and Steve Donahue after reaching first base, still in apparent discomfort. Now, (h/t RAB, we hear that Swisher is going to miss a week’s worth of games. Hock also that is on track to rejoin the team on Thursday. Regarding Swisher, though, the Yankees need to just DL him if he’s going to miss that much time.

First of all, not DLing him just hurts the team. Even if they do get Gardner back on time, the team is still going to be playing with 24 players. Second of all, it hurts Swisher. Like Mike said in the RAB piece, minor hammy injuries can become major hammy injuries quickly. Just put Nick on the DL. If they do, there are a few ways they can go.

The only outfielders on the 40 man roster right now are Zoilo Almonte and Melky Mesa. Both are playing at AA Trenton and it’s probably better for them to be getting every day at bats than to be warming the ML bench and getting playing time once or twice a week. Of course, they both have the advantage of NOT being when it comes to fielding and Almonte is a switch hitter. There’s also , who’s played some corner outfield. However, his defense would probably be pretty bad and his bat (.702 OPS in AAA as I write this), isn’t exactly begging for a call up. If the Yankees wanted to get a little more “cutesy” with the roster and keep using Eduardo Nunez in the OF as they did last night, they could call up to take Nunez’s role while Nunez plays extra outfielder.

Off the 40 man, there are and . They’re probably more suited for the bench role. It wouldn’t be all that hard for the Yankees to make an addition to the 40-man. Cesar Cabral, , and are all still on the 15-day DL and could all be transferred to the 60 day DL. By consensus and numbers, Wise has a good defensive reputation. The same goes for Chris Dickerson, and he has a career .355 OBP vs. righties.

How would you play it if you were in charge? If I were running things, I’d DL Swisher, move one of the injured guys to the 60 day, and call up Dewayne Wise. There probably isn’t a ton of upside there, but he’s been raking at AAA thus far and could at least play good defense in Swisher’s absence.

EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, both Almonte and Dickerson are on the MiL DL (7-day), so that eliminates those options.

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10 Responses to Please place Swisher on the DL

  1. bottom line says:
    May 1, 2012 at 10:31 am

    Agree completely.

    Reply
  2. says:
    May 1, 2012 at 10:48 am

    I believe Almonte and Dickerson are on the minor league DL.

    Reply
  3. Now Batting says:
    May 1, 2012 at 10:48 am

    What do you do with Wise when Swish or Gardner or healthy? He’s out of options. I think the Yankees would prefer to keep Wise in AAA until there is a more serious injury in the outfield, rather than risk losing him for a week worth of replacement.

    Reply
  4. Professor Longnose says:
    May 1, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Why is Pineda on the 15-day DL? He’s not coming back come hell or high water until next year. Is there some advantage to having him on the 15-day DL rather than the 60-day DL? Or the 300-day DL, if there was such a thing?

    Reply
  5. fredweis says:
    May 1, 2012 at 11:50 am

    He’ll be back in less than 15 days, and we don’t need another player.

    Gardner is coming back in a few days, Phelps in the starting rotation, Chavez is playing well at 3B, Nunez is learning the OF and Mitchell just got called up.

    Enough changes going on.

    Reply
  6. bg90027 says:
    May 1, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    Gardner is back in two days. Barring an injury to Granderson, whoever they brought up probably wouldn’t see any playing time other than as a possible late inning defensive replacement. It just isn’t worth losing Swisher’s bat for an extra week for that added flexibility. Even if they really thought they needed another bench player, they could easily add one by sending Mitchell back to the minors. I hate that the 7 man bullpen has become the norm and now they are operating with an 8 man bullpen.

    Reply
  7. Phil C says:
    May 1, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    Even with Gardner back, Swisher should go on the DL. Let him heal completely, he is too valuable to this team in the long run. Plus, carrying 13 pitchers leaves Girardi handicapped, especially since Ibanez should be a DH only and Nunez is still an experiment in the OF.

    Reply
    • bg90027 says:
      May 1, 2012 at 4:38 pm

      What makes you think a week isn’t enough to let Swisher heal completely? Swisher claims that the hamstring strain he had last year that caused him to be out 10 games was much more severe than the one he has now. That’s why he thought he’d be ready by Thursday of this week. The Yankees are already saying no to that, that they want him to rest it for a full week. So it seems to me that they already are trying to be conservative. What is the rationale for an extra week? If an extra week makes sense to play it safe, why not give him an extra two weeks? I just don’t see any reason to question the Yankees’ decision here.

      Reply
      • Phil C says:
        May 1, 2012 at 5:54 pm

        Since I’m not an MD and have no access to Yankee management or Swisher, this is pure speculation on my part. To me, it’s just that too often hamstrings reoccur if not healed completely. I’d never take the players word for it — Jeter would never miss an inning. I could be wrong about the severity of the injury. However, the other part of my argument is that since they are already short with position players I’d like to see Swish on the DL. Of course, Garcia to the DL would also free up a slot that could go to an OF and that would satisfy me.

        Reply

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