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New York Yankees: Mark Teixeira confident he will return

By Nick Ziegler

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The New York Yankees, unfortunately, had to place their first baseman Mark Teixeira on the 15-day DL with a severe bone bruise.

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Teixeira fouled a ball of his shin on August 17th but was able to return briefly for two games against the Houston Astros on August 25th and August 26th. Teixeira was clearly not right in those two games, and it led to the Yankees placing him on the DL retroactive to August 27th.

The good news for Teixeira is that the injury doesn’t seem to be as bad as it could have been.

“There’s no permanent damage,” Teixeira said to Maria Guardado of NJ.com. “It’s just a really bad bone bruise. Worse than we first expected, and it’s unfortunate, but hopefully we have two months of the season left, so there’s plenty of time for me to get healthy and get back.”

Teixeira may have rushed back from the injury the first time, as with the Yankees battling with the Toronto Blue Jays they need his bat in the middle of the order.

“There’s a progression now,” Teixeira said to Guardado. “I basically went from crutches to trying to run last time, and now that we know it’s a lot worse than we first expected, that there’s going to be kind of a build up from walking to jogging to running and making sure I can do everything.”

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Teixeira has missed a lot of time in recent years with injuries, but this season he was healthy and producing up until now.

“This happens,” Teixeira said to Guardado. “This is sports. Show me a team that doesn’t have an injury problem today. There’s not one out there. So you just deal with it. Like I said, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Greg Bird will continue to fill in for Teixeira at first base as long as he is out for. Bird is hitting .258 with four home runs and 14 RBIs since being called up, and he has also played well defensively at first base.

Bird may be the first baseman of the future, but Teixeira gives the Yankees their best chance to win now. This season, Teixeira is batting .255 with 31 home runs and 79 RBIs in what has been his best season since 2011.

Teixeira is confident that he will be able to return this season, but if he misses an extended amount of time in the month of September the Yankees may be in a deeper hole in the division race.

The Yankees should be able to hold onto their wild card spot with or without Teixeira, but their goal is to win the division and avoid the one-game playoff.

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