VENICE, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 28: Manager Aaron Boone #17 of the New York Yankees throws a pitch during batting practice before the spring training game against the Atlanta Braves at Cool Today Park on February 28, 2020 in Venice, Florida.
(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)

The Yankees have had a scary amount of injuries—but the way some of them have been handled is extremely mind-boggling.

The stadium was built on an Indian burial ground.

Every Met is getting hurt, and the mishandling of every injury is totally embarrassing.

Wait, what?

The New York Yankees are the ones being incompetent about injuries?

Yes, it is. Another serious injury for the Yankees, another mishap.

Giancarlo Stanton’s grade one calf strain came this spring, so we’ll give that one a pass.

But James Paxton first felt back pain in September, and did not have surgery until February. He will be out until at least May.

Luis Severino ultimately needed Tommy John surgery from an injury that he suffered in mid-October.

Aaron Judge was just diagnosed with a stress fracture in his first right rib—since when do we have first, second, third, and so on ribs? Anyway.

Judge, and the Yankees, believe he fractured it on Sept. 19. The diagnosis came on March 6.

With the injury concerns around Judge, don’t be surprised to see the Yankees World Series odds drop. Not to mention, Judge’s MVP odds (+1000) are likely going to change with the latest news surrounding his injured right rib.

The Yankees got lucky when Masahiro Tanaka could pitch through a partially torn UCL in 2014—ironically enough, he has been the healthiest pitcher on the Yankees since then, with seemingly no elbow issues.

Maybe the Yankees saw that “rest” and “rehab” could work.

But how often is that the case?

Judge will be off for two weeks and will be reevaluated – the rib has not healed in six months. The Yankees think there will be some serious magic in these two more weeks.

Oh, and surgery is not “off the table,” according to manager Aaron Boone.

Severino received more than one MRI in the offseason. He felt pain more than once. Neither MRI he received was one with dye-contrast, because it could cause soreness. 

What’s worse—waiting three months to find out a bonafide ace needs Tommy John, or a couple of days of soreness months earlier, and having the surgery then?

Severino would still likely be out this entire season, but 2021 would be a full go. Instead, next season’s Opening Day is in limbo.

The Yankees did not trade J.A. Happ all offseason because of Paxton’s back injury. But they waited to see if it would feel better.

It didn’t.

Judge also is not getting a free pass.

The Yankees were in a pennant race – Judge is arguably the team’s best player with a flair for the dramatic. It’s not easy to say no to playing when you could win a World Series.

But he felt pain in November and said nothing.

“As the offseason progressed on, it started to get worse and worse,” said Judge, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. “I thought it was something I could warm up and work through and be fine by the time Spring Training starts. If I would have known it was a rib, maybe I would have done things a little bit differently.”

Bad decisions, good intentions. But it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Judge said he felt shoulder and pectoral pain. Considering he went through a myriad of tests, it could not have been an easy read.

Naturally, the Yankees would check the areas with pain.

But a simple Google search says that shoulder and pectoral pain could be an effect of a cracked rib—similar to how forearm soreness could mean Tommy John surgery is necessary (i.e. Severino).

The Yankees’ doctors couldn’t figure that out in their apparent dozen tests?

The Yankees have had a staggering amount of injuries since the beginning of last year. It is alarming, annoying, and makes you wonder.

But that’s not the worst part.

I’m not a doctor–maybe I am totally wrong.

But from the outside looking in, the Yankees’ handling of these injuries has been nothing short of incompetent. That is the worst part of it all.