Yankees reliever Dellin Betances suffered a season-ending injury, The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler reports. Betances has a partial tear of the left Achilles tendon, which manager Aaron Boone believes happened when Betances jumped while on the mound during Sunday’s game against the Blue Jays. According to James Wagner of The New York Times, the Yankees haven’t ruled out surgery as an option.
Betances, 31, missed most of the season due to shoulder and lat injuries. He returned on Sunday for his season debut in Toronto, striking out both batters he faced.
It sounds odd to ask about a team that just won its 99th game of the season, but are the Yankees cursed? Their injured list would be a competitive team on its own. The list of injuries has chewed through the Yankees’ depth so badly they have had to rely on players like Gio Urshela, Mike Ford, Mike Tauchman, and Thairo Estrada... and they really haven’t missed a beat, somehow. Now the bullpen will once again be short one dominant reliever with the postseason on the horizon.
Betances is eligible for free agency shortly after the postseason has concluded. The injury really couldn’t have come at a worse time for Betances, especially since it will likely cause him to get a late start to the 2020 season as well.