Corey Kluber exits game early with right shoulder tightness

One week after throwing the first Yankees no-hitter of the 21st century, Corey Kluber exited Tuesday’s game with shoulder tightness.

When the New York Yankees signed Corey Kluber this off-season, fans wanted one question answered: Can he stay healthy?

After all, $11 million is a lot to invest in a player that’s barely pitched in the last two years. Combine that with the Jameson Taillon trade and the Yankees rotation had a lot of question marks regarding health.

So far this season, Kluber has put any doubts about his abilities to bed. Coming into Tuesday’s game, he was sporting a 2.86 ERA in 50.1 innings of work. Even more impressive, he threw his first career no-hitter last week against the Texas Rangers.

Kluber has been everything that Yankee fans could have asked for in his first two months of the season.

Unfortunately, his health may now be in question.

Kluber exited Tuesday’s game after just three innings of work. The Yankees later announced that he was experiencing right shoulder tightness, and will undergo further testing on Wednesday.

RHP Corey Kluber left tonight's game with tightness in his right shoulder. He will be further evaluated tomorrow, which will include MRI imaging.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 26, 2021

Obviously this is the worst thing imaginable for Yankees fans. We’ve been traumatized by the injury concerns the team has battled through over the past few seasons. Now, anytime a player so much as sleeps weird and gets a knot in their neck, we assume that the 60 day injured list is calling their name.

But let’s try not to panic just yet. Not until Kluber actually does undergo that testing. For what it’s worth, he wasn’t particularly bad in his three innings of work against the Toronto Blue Jays. He certainly struggled with his command but the only real damage came on a two-run homer by one of the hottest hitters in baseball, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Regardless, we won’t know anything for sure until tomorrow. So let’s all say a quick prayer to the baseball gods tonight to keep Kluber off the injured list.