With a delayed opening day, the New York Yankees are hoping some of their injured stars might be ready when the season rolls around.
Like most sports around the nation, Major League Baseball has taken a hit with the coronavirus outbreak. The league has to delay its start to the 2020 season. While the circumstances aren’t ideal, there is a silver lining for the New York Yankees. With so many injured stars, there is hope they could be ready for the delayed opening day.
At first, the league hoped that a two-week hiatus from the end of spring training would be enough time. As things continue to escalate and the virus continues to spread, that quickly became a pipe dream. Now, the league is hoping the earliest opening day can begin is in the middle of May—almost two full months of a delay. There is even talk it could extend all the way into the month of June.
Again, the circumstances are not ideal. There are much larger issues than baseball happening out in the world. But the Yankees are hoping this delayed timing for opening day will bring some optimism that some of their injured stars could be ready. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com that its a possibility injured stars like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton could be ready.
Aaron Boone told @MLBNetworkRadio that whenever Opening Day does occur, he believes Aaron Judge, James Paxton and Giancarlo Stanton could all be healthy and ready to go.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) March 16, 2020
There was a lot of worry that both Judge and Stanton—two of the best hitters in baseball—would miss more than just opening day. Judge is recovering from a stress fracture in his rib while Stanton suffered a strained calf during the early part of spring training. The timelines for both injuries weren’t clear, but it was widely expected neither player would be ready for regular opening day. Now, there’s a chance both sluggers could be ready to go by the time the season actually rolls around.
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The other name to keep an eye on as the opening day date continues to get delayed is starting pitcher James Paxton. The southpaw was already missing the first few months of the season. If his recovery goes as planned, he might just miss a few weeks of the season. For a team that already lost Luis Severino for the year, that would be huge.
The virus situation is fluid. The league has to take information as they get it, which means we don’t really know what’s going to happen. However, there is a chance the Yankees get some star power back just in time for the delayed start of the season.
Should that happen, optimism would be back after a gloomy start to spring training.