{"id":827307,"date":"2026-08-27T07:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827307\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:18:09","slug":"fernando-cruz-diagnosed-with-partial-ucl-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827307\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Cruz Diagnosed With Partial UCL Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yankees setup man\u00a0Fernando Cruz<\/a> has a partially torn UCL, manager Aaron Boone informed reporters after tonight\u2019s win over the Astros (relayed by Brendan Kuty of The Athletic<\/a>). The righty is seeking additional opinions as he weighs whether he\u2019ll require surgery.<\/p>\n

In either case, it\u2019s difficult to imagine Cruz pitching again this season. Surgery would very likely rule him out for all of 2027 as well. That\u2019d undoubtedly be true if he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction. If the partial tear allows him to go the internal brace route, he\u2019d have an outside chance of making a return in September \u201927.<\/p>\n

Cruz has been New York\u2019s top righty setup arm all season. Only closer\u00a0David Bednar<\/a> has come into higher-leverage spots on average. Cruz\u2019s 19 holds have him second on the club behind lefty\u00a0Brent Headrick<\/a>. He had only blown three leads coming into August. Cruz clearly hasn\u2019t been right lately, giving up three leads while allowing six runs on eight hits (including four homers) across eight innings this month.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Cruz entered August with a 2.51 earned run average and 29% strikeout rate. He\u2019s still carrying a solid 3.13 ERA despite the shaky recent form. Opponents haven\u2019t had any luck against his elite splitter. They\u2019ve had much more success against his fastball, which is averaging 93 mph after sitting in the 94-95 range in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

Cruz\u2019s injury deals a major hit to one of baseball\u2019s best bullpens. Only the Red Sox have a lower reliever ERA than New York\u2019s 3.06 mark. The Yankees are middle of the pack in strikeout rate but again have one of the game\u2019s most grounder-heavy relief groups. Cruz, Bednar, and Headrick are their only big swing-and-miss arms.<\/p>\n

The Yankees opted not to make any moves on the pitching staff at the deadline, prioritizing an offense that has really struggled since the Aaron Judge<\/a> injury. They\u2019ve seen each of\u00a0Max Fried<\/a>,\u00a0Ryan Weathers<\/a> and Cruz land on the IL within the past couple weeks. Fried could be back as soon as this weekend, but Weathers has a longer timeline after suffering a forearm strain.<\/p>\n

New York could use Weathers in a relief role if he returns before the end of the season. He\u2019d pair with Headrick as a high-octane tandem from the left side.\u00a0Paul Blackburn<\/a> now looks like their best right-handed matchup arm, while recent signees\u00a0Michael Fulmer<\/a> and\u00a0Justin Topa<\/a> could quickly find themselves in meaningful spots.<\/p>\n

Fried\u2019s return should bump\u00a0Elmer Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> out of the rotation, but he could compete for a spot in the playoff bullpen.\u00a0Clarke Schmidt<\/a> is nearing a minor league rehab assignment and said this week that he\u2019s hoping to return as a reliever (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yankees setup man\u00a0Fernando Cruz has a partially torn UCL, manager Aaron Boone informed reporters after tonight\u2019s win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2011,76815,99],"class_list":["post-827307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-clarke-schmidt","tag-fernando-cruz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}