{"id":173807,"date":"2025-08-25T07:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173807\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T07:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:53:14","slug":"yankees-fernando-cruz-likely-to-return-for-nationals-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173807\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Fernando Cruz likely to return for Nationals series"},"content":{"rendered":"

A still-battered Yankees bullpen is set to receive another shot in the arm Monday.<\/p>\n

Fernando Cruz is expected to be activated off the injured list in time to begin a series against the Nationals after missing nearly two months with a high-grade oblique strain.<\/p>\n

Manager Aaron Boone on Saturday left the door open for Cruz to be activated Sunday, but the Yankees waited to make a move after the right-hander threw 1 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings in his fourth rehab game Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he\u2019s been super productive for us down there and such an important part of that pen when he\u2019s been healthy,\u201d Boone said before the Yanks\u2019 7-2 win in the series finale against the Red Sox<\/a>. \u201cAnd he\u2019s just a great person and competitor and guy to be on the team; takes the ball in any scenario. I am looking forward to getting him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewFernando Cruz throws a pitch during the Yankees\u2019 June 16 game. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

Before going on the IL for the second time this season \u2014 he missed 15 days in late May with right shoulder inflammation \u2014 Cruz pitched to a 3.00 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 33 innings, most of them high-leverage outings.<\/p>\n

The Yankees bullpen has largely struggled in Cruz\u2019s absence \u2014 entering Sunday with a 5.58 ERA since Cruz went on the IL, the second-worst mark in the majors during that span \u2014 even after adding reinforcements at the deadline in David Bednar, Camilo Doval and Jake Bird (who is now at Triple-A). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"NewFernando Cruz reacts after pitching the eighth inning against the Red Sox on June 13. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n

But Cruz\u2019s return should give Boone another late-inning option in his circle of trust as the Yankees head down the homestretch.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Paul Blackburn remained on the roster Sunday despite being unavailable after throwing 71 pitches in mop-up duty Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jasson Dom\u00ednguez was out of the lineup for the fourth time in the last six games in order to get Giancarlo Stanton\u2019s bat \u2014 which went 2-for-3 with a double \u2014 into the lineup in right field. <\/p>\n

Cody Bellinger manned left field with Trent Grisham in center, where he was starting for the 17th straight game and slugged two more homers.<\/p>\n

Austin Slater (hamstring strain) did some running in the outfield and on the bases Sunday afternoon as he tries to work back toward a September return. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Boone did not have a time table for when the outfielder might advance to a rehab assignment, or at least taking live batting practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A still-battered Yankees bullpen is set to receive another shot in the arm Monday. Fernando Cruz is expected…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1266,405,403,2228,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-173807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115088327058461915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}