NFL
By: Billy Lewis
MLB initially scheduled Opening Day for March 26th. An exciting offseason, capped with the signing of the best available free-agent pitcher, had Yankee fans clamoring for the opener. Of course, as we all know, Covid-19 spread and has put the world as we know it on hold.
While right now things are complicated and the United States will be under quarantine through at least April 30th, I am going to be optimistic in this post and think about the future when we get to watch baseball again.
If the season had started last Thursday, the Yankees would have been missing Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and James Paxton. Though Luis Severino and Aaron Hicks are also losing time, they are out with Tommy John surgery, so they will have extended absences.
Waiting For Opening Day
Of the first three mentioned, Stanton would have most likely been the first player back, then Paxton and finally Judge. I’ll pick June 1st as a tentative Opening Day. Paxton was facing May to make his return, so he’ll be more than ready. Stanton would have most likely been eager to return a week or two into the season, so he should be healthy as well.
Judge will be the wild card. He has been recovering from a fractured rib, and he also had a collapsed lung. The collapsed lung is fully healed, so Judge just needs to wait for the rib to recover. The best way to improve the fracture was rest, and well, now Judge has plenty of time to rest.
Hopefully, we will be able to get life back to normal relatively soon. When baseball can play again, the Yankees should be a healthy team, ready to go after their 28th World Series title.
