The 2018 Major League Baseball season is underway and for the New York Yankees physically, it’s been a tough one out the gates. One big concern for the team has been their starting pitching rotation. After one week through the five-man rotation, pitchers Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia, Sonny Gray and Jordan Montgomery all had quality starts. The Yankee bats have been what we all thought they would be, just not from the players we expected. We all heard about the dangerous hitting trio of Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. Although it’s only been a week, it has been Yankee shortstop Didi Gregorious who has been swinging a hot bat in the first week. In the team’s home opener, Gregorious hit 2 home runs and 8 RBI, becoming the first Yankee shortstop to ever record 8 RBI in a game and second-most RBI in a game for the team since Alex Rodriguez’s 10 RBI game 13 years ago.

The team’s first issue to deal with in the young season is the injury bug. The team is thin as far as their outfielders go. Starting outfielder Aaron Hicks went down this week with an oblique injury, Jacoby Ellsbury is dealing with an oblique and hip issue, and Clint Frazier is still recovering from a concussion he suffered in a game in spring training. The team called up outfielder Billy McKinney, but he was put on the disabled list after injuring his shoulder. Thus, leading to veteran Brett Gardner having to be relied on more as far as playing time; Aaron Judge playing more right field without rest and Stanton playing left field, a position where he struggled during spring training.

For now, the injuries the Yankees have suffered do not appear to be serious, but are nagging ones. Ellsbury did suffer a bit of a setback, Hicks should be back in the lineup in another week, Frazier will begin playing minor league games next week. The season is very young and if a team were to have a “minor” injury, the best time would be the month of April rather than a key player being out as the team is pushing for a playoff spot. So far, so good for the Yankees. We shall see what this team is really made of once they get their outfielding core back where Manager Aaron Boone can then rotate some days off for his players.