Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner was on the right road to recovery and was expected to come back to the Yankees as early as today. In two starts with the Triple-A Yankees, Gardner was 3-for-5 with a triple and a run scored. However, after he came out of the game on Wednesday night, he had a setback in his recovery process.
“After the game last night he came out and he was sore, so as we speak, I believe he's having another MRI," Girardi said. “I can't tell you when he's going to be available to us, but I can tell you it won't be today.”
Girardi delineated a little more on the circumstance saying, “When he came out of the game he had a little swelling in there. I talked to (Yankees trainer) Stevie (Donahue) about it, and they brought him back and decided to have more tests today. It's in the muscular part; it's not where the bone bruise was.”
When asked by YES Network's Meredith Marakovits if this was a new injury, Girardi said, “It could be new. He had the bone bruise plus the muscular part before, but the muscular part had healed. He's feeling it in that area and he had some swelling. He played the whole game yesterday without a problem. It was after.”
Gardner, before the injury, was 9-for-28 this season, with a .321 average and had two stolen bases. He has played a key role with the Yankees since his call-up to the Majors in 2008. His style of game, being an on-base machine at the back of the lineup and a stolen base threat every time he gets on base, just gives the Yankees another weapon on how they can defeat teams. It hasn't just been on the offensive side of the ball that he has impressed. As a left fielder, he is superb. Between Granderson in center and Gardner in left, they cover a lot of ground in the outfield.
“We miss him. There's no doubt about it,” Girardi said of Gardner. “The way he was swinging the bat, his defense, the way he puts pressure on defense. We miss his presence in left field, but we've got to find a way to get it done without him, and as I said, I don't know when we're going to get him back -- I don't. I'm sure today will be much more revealing after he goes through the test and he probably is examined by the doctor and maybe see how it responds, how it feels tomorrow, but for right now we don't have him.”
For the short term, at least until more information comes out on the nature of why Gardner had swelling in his arm, the Yankees will have to continue to make due without their reliable outfielder.
