Thanks to Carlos Beltran’s right elbow problem and Ichiro Suzuki’s lower back issue, the Yankees had to promote outfielder Zoilo Almonte from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday when they put Shawn Kelley on the disabled list with a lower back injury.
Choosing the switch-hitting Almonte instead of a reliever to take Kelley’s place meant the Yankees met the Mets at Yankee Stadium with 11 pitchers instead of the dozen they usually carry.
“We can’t wait too long,’’ manager Joe Girardi said when asked how long he can play short a pitcher. “Let us get through these two days and go from there.’’
When the season opened, Kelley was the eighth-inning guy in front of David Robertson. Since Kelley hasn’t worked since May 6 in Anaheim, when he threw one-third of an inning and was tagged with a blown save but was the winning pitcher in a 4-3 victory, he is eligible to come off the DL on May 22.
“It’s not getting to where it needs to get. It’s a blow to our bullpen when you are a talking about late-inning guys,’’ Girardi said of losing Kelley (1-2), who worked 16 games, had a 3.52 ERA and struck out 16 in 15 ¹/₃ innings. “It puts more responsibility on [Adam] Warren and [Dellin] Betances. Those guys will have to step up and they have been stepping up all year for us.’’
Kelley had an MRI exam in Milwaukee Friday that came back clean, but he was scheduled to see team doctor Chris Ahmad Tuesday night.
“He had the MRI and it came back good but I don’t know if they will want to do a different test,’’ Girardi said.
Almonte, who played in 34 games last season for the Yankees and hit .236 with a homer and nine RBIs, was batting .273 with six homers and 24 RBIs in 33 games at Triple-A.