Yankees GM Brian Cashman said ace Chien-Ming Wang’s right foot injury would cause him to miss at least 10 weeks and perhaps more; and that while he’d keep his ears open for trade possibilities, the hope and plan is to fill the void internally.
“Ultimately if I have to go outside and (do) something, I’ve done it before and we’ll try and do it again,” Cashman said. “But hopefully we have some guys internally who’ll step it up and surprise us and say I want to be noticed. Time will tell. Wang broke in when Kevin Brown went down in ’05, so that’s just the nature of the beast.”
Cashman – speaking at the Jorge Posada Foundation’s 7th Annual Heroes of Hope Gala – said Wang would be in a boot for six weeks, and would need at least four weeks after that to return to pitching form. In the meantime, they have a huge hole to fill.
“It could be (Dan) Giese, who’s pitching out of our bullpen. It could be somebody from Triple-A; we’ll have to wait and see,” said Cashman.
It won’t be Phil Hughes or Ian Kennedy, both on the disabled list, Cashman saying the former won’t be back until August and the latter is closer but still a ways off.
And he downplayed Freddy Garcia as an answer, deeming the free-agent pitcher more of a long-range possibility while adding, “I need a starter for Saturday.”