JAZZ'S INJURY WORSE THAN EXPECTED & THE YANKEES AREN'T PREPARED

Hey gang. I hate to rip on my Yankee organization as much as I have been, but this has nothing to do with the individual players. In fact, I feel bad for the players. They aren't given what they should be given. The Yankee front office and manager have been pretty much the worst, and I will not stop banging the drum hammering their incompetence and oblivious decision making, until they are gone. They are not a serious franchise. Which brings me to Jazz.

When Chisholm got hurt last week after fouling off a pitch against the Orioles, the Yankees tried their best to stay calm. “It’s probably just a tweak,” they said, clinging to optimism like it was 2009. Unfortunately, the MRI machine doesn’t care about hope. The results? Three separate oblique strains. Not one. Not two. Three. That’s basically a jackpot you don’t want to hit. Recovery time? Four to six weeks minimum, and that’s the “let’s pretend this will go perfectly” estimate, which the Yankees always do because they forget that players are human beings and players need recovery time. 

Realistically, it could be longer — and anyone who’s ever pulled an oblique tying their shoes knows this is no quick bounce back. In fact, Dr. Elise C. Bixby, a sports orthopedic surgeon at NYU Langone, dropped some truth bombs on The Injury Report podcast that made Yankees fans audibly groan into their morning bagels.  This came from Pinstripes Nation.

“Most people don’t realize how essential the obliques are until something goes wrong,” Dr. Bixby said. “They’re not just core muscles; they’re critical for rotation, which is everything in baseball — whether you’re swinging a bat or throwing from second base.” Translation: without obliques, you’re basically a decorative lawn gnome.

And Jazz’s injury? Worse than most. “We typically see one localized tear in the internal oblique,” Bixby continued. “Jazz has three different areas affected.” That’s not a strain — it’s a symphony of pain.

But let’s be clear: this isn’t Jazz’s fault. Injuries happen in baseball. They’re unfortunate, unpredictable, and part of the game. What isn’t part of the game — or shouldn’t be — is a front office pretending they didn’t see this coming. The Yankees knew the infield was a few scuffed cleats away from disaster, and they did… absolutely nothing.

They didn’t reinforce the infield. They didn’t add meaningful depth. They didn’t plan for contingencies; in fact, they were cheap. They rolled into the season with a depth chart that might as well have been scribbled on a cocktail napkin...with crayon. And now, here we are: Jazz is shelved, the offense takes a hit, and the panic button is being frantically pounded. And when I say that, I mean internally, they are throwing shit at the wall, blaming each other. Out in public, they're telling us that everything is great. Why? Because they're liars. Why else would that puppet Boone be the manager?

So, who’s supposed to fill the void? Why, a 37-year-old DJ LeMahieu, limping back to the team like the Ghost of Yankees Past. Don’t get me wrong — DJ is a fan favorite and a warrior. But pretending he’s going to be the infield savior is some top-shelf delusion. The man hasn’t played since the iPhone 8 came out. He’s coming off a long injury layoff, and at this point, he should be eased in — not thrust into crisis mode.

But this is what happens when the Yankees front office operates like they’re managing a beer league softball team. No plan B. No foresight. Just vibes and trust in Aaron Boone, whose managerial strategy seems to boil down to: "Let’s see what happens," and "It's Right in front of us."

Some analysts will tell you the Yankees infield looks good on paper. Sure — if you ignore the part where half of its injured, the other half is inconsistent, and DJ’s leg is held together by hope and kinesiology tape.

Bottom line: this falls squarely on the Yankees brass. They didn’t reinforce when they had the chance. They didn’t make the moves everyone knew they needed to make. And now, they’re praying DJ LeMahieu can be 2020 DJ again. Spoiler: he probably won’t be. 

The bottom line is this; unless the front office wakes up, neither will the Yankees’ postseason hopes.