(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
    Didi Gregorius out for at least two weeks
Nederlands
  NEW YORK, New York / TAMPA, Florida (USA) -
Didi Gregorius will be out for at least two weeks, the New York Yankees announced on Tuesday (March 21) and might even miss the first month of the regular season.
The short stop left the Netherlands Kingdom Team on Monday with a right shoulder-injury and returned to New York to be examined.
On Monday-evening, the Orange-squad played in the Semi-Final of the World Baseball Classic in Los Angeles against Puerto Rico and lost 4-3 in eleven innings.
...Didi Gregorius hitting for the Netherlands...
...during last Saturday's game against...
...the Arizona Diamondbacks...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
According to the Yankees, the 27-year old Gregorius has a strained subscapularis muscle in his right shoulder.
He sustained the injury last Saturday while completing a double play in the exhibition game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which was played in between the Second Round and Final Round of the Classic.
It was reported that a full recovery even could take six weeks and that he will not perform any activities in the next two weeks.
Gregorius played in all games of the Netherlands Team in the First Round and Second Round of the World Baseball Classic.
He was the designated hitter in five of these games and played at short stop once.
In the exhibiton game last Saturday, he played at short stop and also at second base.
While playing as second baseman, he completed a double play in the bottom of the sixth inning.
He left the game defensively thereafter, but remained in the batting order.
In the six WBC-games, Gregorius batted .347 with four doubles and a homerun and batted in eight runs.
Before joining the Netherlands squad, Gregorius was in Spring Training with the Yankees.
On February 24, he homered in his first at bat of the Spring Training Grapefruit League-season.
Gregorius plays for the New York Yankees since 2015, taking over at short stop after Derek Jeter retired.
Last year, he played in 153 games and batted .276 with 20 homeruns and 70 runs batted in.
Because of the injury, Gregorius will begin the season on the disabled list.
A possible replacement for Gregorius at short will be Starlin Castro, who plays at second base, but has been a short in the past.
The regular season in the Major League begins on Sunday, April 2.
The Yankees will open in St. Petersburg playing against the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game of a 3-game series.
Thereafter, the Yankees will play three games against Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore.
The Yankees play their first home game in April 10 against the Rays.
(March 21)
Related Articles:
 Netherlands eliminated by Puerto Rico in 11-inning thriller. (March 20)
Didi Gregorius leaves Netherlands Team with injury. (March 20)
Netherlands loses exhibition game vs. Arizona Diamondbacks. (March 18)
Netherlands to play exhibition game; Jansen joins team. (March 16)
Big W Netherlands vs. Cuba; in Semi-Finals after W Japan. (March 15)
Netherlands wins convincingly against Israel. (March 13)
Netherlands ends up short in extra innings vs. Japan. (March 12)
Netherlands empty-handed vs. Israel; finishes 2nd in Pool. (March 9)
Orange in 2nd Round WBC after walk-off win; Israel also in. (March 8)
Netherlands opens WBC with shutout vs. South Korea. (March 7)
Didi Gregorius homers in first Spring Training at bat. (February 24)
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