Injury storm will test Yankees’ confidence in fallback plans

Well, this Yankees journey sure got muddy in a hurry, didn’t it?

They still have the talent base to withstand this tsunami of injury adversity. Yet this is becoming quite a tsunami.

Even as they halted a two-game losing streakwith a torn labrum in his right shoulder that could, if rest doesn’t heal him sufficiently over the next two weeks, require season-ending surgery to repair.

“People asked me all spring how I liked the team,” said Brett Gardner, who contributed a solo homer on Monday. “I told people I love the team, not just because of the guys in the room but the depth that we have.

“And obviously we’re not expecting to get that depth tested early on, but here we are on April 1st and already making moves.”

Moves all over the place. Well-known youngsters Clint Frazier and Tyler Wade rejoined the team on Monday, up from the minors before Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre opened its schedule. Right-hander Domingo German, in the starting rotation thanks to the absence of Luis Severino (right shoulder) and CC Sabathia (suspended), picked up the win with five innings of one-run, one-hit, five-walk, seven strikeout ball.

In all, the Yankees have nine players on the IL, and that group will grow to 10 on Wednesday when Sabathia, still on the mend from offseason heart and right knee procedures, pivots there. The Yankees’ shelf features over $400 million in future commitments, and while only Andujar’s situation appears extremely perilous, it’s not like anyone else is about to come back any day now.

The fill-ins bring pedigree and quality with them. Rising-from-the-ashes shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and his old Rockies buddy DJ LeMahieu, who can step in at third base bring intrigue, as does Frazier, who received his promotion call, fittingly, just as he arrived at Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton International Airport on a flight from Tampa to begin the minor league season.

“This is the opportunity I wanted last year,” said Frazier, whose 2018 was essentially ruined by a concussion he suffered early in spring training. “ … Right now, I’m feeling the best I felt at the plate in a long time, so I think that extra couple of days in Tampa is going to be very beneficial to myself to come up here and try to make the most of every opportunity I get.”

When you add all of these contingency plans together, however, you decrease your odds of getting where you want to go.

“The biggest thing is we’re a well-oiled machine,” vowed Judge, who made a great diving catch on Niko Goodrum’s eighth-inning line drive to preserve the Yankees’ lead. “When everyone’s doing their part, just doing their job, we’re going to do pretty well.”

That machine gets put to the test now. Did Brian Cashman and his staff do enough to cover for this injury epidemic? Would it have been worth it to sign Bryce Harper for the increasingly decimated outfield? Will Aaron Boone utilize his remaining pieces optimally and keep the clubhouse upbeat?

“I feel like we have a club capable of weathering that storm,” Boone said on Monday afternoon. “Go out there with the expectation that we’re going to win a lot of games, even though [we’re] playing a little bit short right now. I think that’s one of the strengths of our roster, probably more so even than we had last year.”

Of course, shortly after saying this, Boone learned of Andujar’s bad news. It has been that kind of Yankees season so far. How profound a depth test can the Yankees pass? They sure as heck don’t want to find out.