


Brian Cashman acknowledged that injuries are “certainly killing” the Yankees.
In the early days of May, though, he believes there is time for a revival rather than an autopsy.
“Don’t count us out,” the Yankees general manager said in his first news conference of the season. “Don’t give up on us.”
Cashman held court before the Yankees faced off against the Guardians in The Bronx, a game in which they entered in last place in the AL East and with 12 players lost to the injured list.
Aaron Judge (right hip strain) is only the latest to hit the IL, notably joining Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring strain) and three-fifths of the projected rotation in Carlos Rodon (left forearm strain and back issue), Luis Severino (right lat strain) and Frankie Montas (shoulder surgery).
Three times Cashman said it is a “long season,” and he did not want to panic after 31 games.
In stating confidence that the team would become whole eventually, he signaled there were no trades on the horizon.
“We have time to make up ground, and we’re going to compete with who we have here,” Cashman said of the Yankees, who entered play 8.5 games back of the first-place Rays. “We look forward to getting who we need back at a later date.”
Cashman did not point toward any individual for the injury rash — “It’s not our strength and conditioning department. It’s not how we train our players,” he said. — and also did not blame players who came with injury risks.
Rodon, who was signed to a six-year, $162 million pact this offseason, was shelved in the spring due to a forearm strain and has not been able to continue his build-up because of a troublesome back.
Rodon is coming off two seasons of mostly good health but had a litany of injury issues earlier in his career.
The Yankees traded for Montas at last year’s deadline, and his shoulder hampered him upon arriving.

Montas acknowledged this spring he “wasn’t fully 100 percent” when the Yankees brought him in.
“Ultimately, we got all the information that we had access to,” Cashman said of Rodon and Montas. “In terms of Rodon, he came in, did the full physical. … In Montas’ case, we got all access to everything including me talking to the player involved. When he was here, he was 100 percent healthy.”