Hamstrung In The Bronx!

The goal was to add to the team by the trade deadline – but now the Yankees are dealing with a significant subtraction to an already banged up roster. Cody Bellinger is on the Injured List. When it rains on this team, it freaking torrential downpours.

The Yankees have spent the summer without some of their biggest star power. Now an already patched together outfield without Aaron Judge and DH Giancarlo Stanton gets more complicated. This team is the very definition of complicated but now losing Cody just makes it downright depressing. Although Cody slumped offensively heading to the All-Star break his defense has been unmatched, literally. He is the best defensive left fielder in the league. To date, he leads all left fielders with 19 defensive runs saved, Boston’s Jarren Duran is a very distant second with 8 defensive runs saved. Cody’s range and arm strength make him an elite defender.

While Cody is out, Spencer Jones gets the call from Triple-A. I really want to see him contribute and grow into a major league player that everyone else believes him to be. I’m just not a big Jones fan. He’s 25 and hasn’t figured out how to be a consistent, productive hitter. He’s all or nothing and I’m tired of watching that every season on this team reincarnated.

The world seems to think he is going to be this guy who hits 30+ home runs, and drives in 100 runs. That’s all great in theory but when you have a 40% strikeout rate those odds are increasingly NOT in your favor to make those kinds of stats. Oh and, if he can’t achieve those numbers down in Triple-A, how does anyone think it just magically gets better in the majors? You know…where the talent level is higher. Am I the only one who believes it’s possible that Jones could be just as likely to be Joey Gallo 2.0?

Okay, I will stop there because I think my frustration of Cody is making me go down a rabbit hole about Jones. My frustration is we seem to have more hamstring issues every stinking year. This time, it’s a new experience for Cody, who said, “I’ve never had a hamstring injury before. It just feels a little tight,” read more HERE. So the guy who’s never had a hamstring before has no idea what he’s dealing with yet and neither do the Yankees.

Side note – how do the Yankees not realize that they can avoid more of these hamstring issues by doing this cool thing called STRETCHING? Yes, it’s this not new at all thing that many athletes around the world do. It helps with mobility and agility and my goodness there are many resources out there to help the Yankees with these things. There are classes, and hell I actually jump on this cool thing called YouTube and go through some videos. They are very helpful! If the Yankees added some stretching to their workouts and not just weight lifting, it would do wonders! Yoga and Pilates are not just girly activities, they are game changers!

Okay, rant over. No one knows how long Cody will be out. Hopefully he’s back soon because anymore craziness and you could stumble across more of these ramblings. Get well soon, Cody….and add more stretching!