The New York Yankees placed first baseman Mark Teixeira on the 15-day disabled list on Saturday with a right articular cartilage tear. The Yankees replaced him on the active roster with first baseman Chris Parmelee.
Teixeira exited in the middle of the third inning of the Yankees’ 6-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles with knee discomfort and was sent to a team hospital for an MRI that revealed the tear.
The 36-year-old Teixeira has dealt with injuries often over the previous five seasons, including a right wrist injury that required surgery in 2013 and a fractured right leg in the final month of last season.
Parmelee did not make the Yankees’ major-league roster out of spring training and was assigned to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. In 43 games with the RailRiders, Parmelee drove in 21 runs and slashed .252/.343/.444 with eight doubles and seven home runs.
Backup first baseman Dustin Ackley underwent a season-ending procedure on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum. Ackley recorded nine hits in 61 at-bats prior to undergoing surgery. Greg Bird, the likely heir to the first-base duties after Teixeira moves on, was lost for the entirety of the 2016 campaign when he had surgery to repair his right labrum in April.
Rookie Rob Refsnyder replaced Teixeira in Friday’s game at first base after being promoted from Triple-A and working out at the position earlier in the week. Refsnyder is 4-for-13 with New York since being called up. With the RailRiders to begin the season, Refsnyder batted .294 in 35 games with ten extra-base hits and ten RBIs.
Another option is Nick Swisher, who has a .242 batting average with four homers and fifteen RBIs on the season and ten strikeouts over his last six games.
Teixeira has struggled at the plate this season, managing a batting mark of .180 in 48 games. Teixeira has whiffed 49 times in 188 plate appearances, striking out over 29 percent of the time.
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