Yankees reliever Wandy Peralta placed on IL with back injury
Yankees relief pitcher Wandy Peralta delivers against the Mets during the ninth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 23. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Another Yankee has a back problem.
This time it’s lefthander Wandy Peralta, who has been dealing with a back issue for the last 4-6 weeks, Aaron Boone said before Thursday night’s game.
“It’s still there today, not getting much improvement there,” Boone said.
And so Peralta, a workhorse out of the Yankees’ bullpen this season, was placed on the IL Thursday with what the team called left thoracic spine tightness.
“We don’t think it’s serious,” Boone said.
Peralta, who had an MRI, has a 2.72 ERA in 56 appearances, the second-most on the club behind Clay Holmes’ 60.
Boone said the hope is Peralta will be back in time for the Yankees’ season-ending four-game series Oct. 3-5 (it includes a doubleheader Oct. 4) in Arlington against the Rangers.
Holmes missed 14 games in August dealing with a back issue and first baseman Anthony Rizzo has been dealing with lower-back tightness – which he and the Yankees believe he is finally done with – since late June.
Britton activated
Lefthander Zack Britton, who underwent Tommy John surgery late last season, was activated Thursday. Britton is a free agent at the end of the season. Boone said of the reliever: “I think we have to go find out and get him in these games right now and see where we’re at.”
Andujar DFA’d
Miguel Andujar, who finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting to the Angels' Shohei Ohtani in 2018, was designated for assignment. Andujar's promising career started to become derailed early in the 2019 season when he suffered a fluke shoulder injury,
Andujar, whose representatives had been asking the Yankees to trade him since 2021 when he found himself blocked from the big leagues, hit .229 in 27 games, spread out over several stints, this season.
