Yankees send Miguel Andujar, Mike Ford to alternate site
The Yankees' Miguel Andujar returns to the dugout after he strikes out against the Rays during the ninth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 19. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Miguel Andujar had finally started to get his hitting groove back. But the Yankees still sent him back to the alternate site on Tuesday when they activated Gio Urshela and Giancarlo Stanton from the injured list.
Andujar wasn’t going to get any playing time and the Yankees needed to keep middle infielder Thairo Estrada on the roster because of Gleyber Torres’ problematic quad, which kept the shortstop out of the lineup against the Blue Jays.
Manager Aaron Boone said the Yankees also decided to keep three catchers because they didn’t want to risk losing either Kyle Higashioka or Erik Kratz on waivers.
So Andujar, who had been producing, and Mike Ford, who hasn’t been all season, got a trip on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
"Obviously, tough calls," Boone said. "Just, obviously, some difficult decisions, and especially in Miggy’s case. With Gio coming back and, obviously, Giancarlo and Aaron [Judge] next, there probably weren’t going to be a lot of immediate at-bats for him. That went into what was a difficult decision."
Andujar, 25, was batting .355 with a .975 OPS in September. Overall, he is batting .242 with a .632 OPS.
Ford, 28, is batting .135 with a .496 OPS in 74 at-bats.
Cole hard facts
Gerrit Cole, who threw a seven-inning shutout against the Orioles on Friday, isn’t resting on his laurels going into his outing on Wednesday night against Toronto.
"I think each start is by and large its own separate day," Cole said. "But you take a positive, certainly, and you take things you want to get better at and you try to carry those over from start to start. There were some things, again, some large misses with some of the curveballs, some large misses with some other pitches as well, that I’m just going to continue to try to hammer down, make more quality pitches and keep the pitch count down."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
More Yankees headlines
