The New York Yankees can’t wait for the 2025 regular season to start, mostly because they can’t seem to escape a single day in Tampa without something bizarre happening.
Every day, a different headline-grabber shakes up the camp atmosphere. It was only two weeks ago that Marcus Stroman had the spotlight, telling the gathered media that he had no intention of moving to the bullpen and was preparing as a starter. Now, that feels like ages ago! Thanks to Luis Gil’s shoulder injury, Stroman’s preparation was probably correct in the first place.
Minutes after news of Gil’s issue dropped, Aaron Boone followed it up by noting that bullpen wild card/potential long relief hopeful JT Brubaker had suffered three broken ribs last weekend. His condition has improved, but he’ll miss some time regardless as the healing process creeps along.
The injury came when he was, quote, “trying to get out of the way” of a comebacker in the first weekend of spring training action. Perfectly on brand, no notes (some notes).
JT Brubaker broke three ribs trying to get out of the way of the comebacker last weekend, per Boone. Symptomatically he’s doing OK, but it will cost him time.
— Greg Joyce (@GJoyce9) February 28, 2025
Yankees bullpen hopeful JT Brubaker fractures three ribs avoiding comebacker at spring training
Brubaker probably wasn’t in the Opening Day mix, though he did intrigue the Yankees enough for them to tender him a contract after a largely lost year in 2024. They had a vision for him when they picked him up mid-Tommy John rehab, and they still maintain that vision today. This stinks.
Now, though, we have to ask the real questions: Did he get hit by the comebacker? Or did he break the ribs merely bending to “get out of the way” of the wayward baseball? Getting old stinks.
Also, “symptomatically he’s doing OK” indicates that he is very much not doing OK emotionally. And hey, JT? We get that. We’re also not doing OK after absorbing a different bizarre injury each and every day at camp (though, symptomatically, we’re fine).
The Yankees need some sort of cleanse right now, and whether it’s fair or not, we’re going to go ahead and blame the Tampa Bay Rays for sharing their clubhouse. Opening Day can’t come soon enough, so we can replace the daily Giancarlo Stanton updates with … well, let’s be honest, probably even more daily Giancarlo Stanton updates.
