Let me start off this blog with an OH MY GOD MARIANO CANNOT BE HURT. DEAR GOD WHY WOULD THIS HAPPEN. TAKE ANYBODY, TAKE GARCIA HE ISN'T DOING ANYTHING. TAKE ME, JUST FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY DON'T TAKE MARIANO.
I'm glad that's off my chest, let's proceed.
Losing Mariano Rivera is the absolute worst injury that the Yankees could endure. Losing any hitter in the Yankees lineup would hurt, but the Yankees have a deep enough bench and a deep enough wallet to be able to find a suitable replacement. Eduardo Nunez could replace Jeter, A-Rod and even Cano or Swisher if the Yankees were ever in that situation. Granderson would be the trickiest position to fill because the Yankees don't have anyone on their roster, who is healthy, that could play center, but they would manage.
Any starting pitcher, outside of Sabathia, would be relatively easy to fill, especially because no one has really stepped up. Ivan Nova has finally lost a start, Phil Hughes is proving that his 2010 18 win campaign was a fluke and Hiroki Kuroda is still trying to figure out a new league. CC would obviously be an awful situation, but not an impossible situation. While he has been one of the leagues most reliable pitchers the last three years (pitching 230 plus innings while never having a FIP above 3.54) he is not indispensable. The 2004 Yankees made it to the ALCS with a starting rotation without a 15 game winner or a pitcher with an ERA under 4.00. (Granted this cost the Yankees a World Series trip and probably another... you know what lets just leave that series alone... forever). If Sabathia went down the Yankees could call up a post retirement Andy Pettitte to see what he has or even Manuel Banuelos and have a patchwork rotation.
All of these scenarios would significantly impact the Yankees chances of first off making the playoffs and second off winning another world series, but they aren't nearly as bad as losing Mo. With no offense to Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera was the most important and best member of the core four. The Yankees would have never won five World Series titles with anyone else at closer. It has been written a million times, but Rivera's post seasons numbers are just off the charts.
In the five years that the Yankees won a World Series with the core four Mariano posted FIP's of 2.82 (1996), 1.94 (1998), 1.92 (1999), 3.07 (2000) and 2.28 (2009). In his playoff career Rivera has a 2.23 FIP (that includes a FIP of 8.61 in 1997), a .13 HR/9 ( he has only allowed 2 career playoff homeruns that's incredible), and a K/BB of 5.24. Check out this graph comparing him to Trevor Hoffman and Dennis Eckersley, Rivera destroys them, those graphs are only for the regular season they would even more astounding if they were for the post season. David Robertson will replace Rivera if the injury is serious and would probably do a very good job. In fact the Yankees should shut Rivera down until September, they can manage a regular season without him that is doable. However, if the Yankees want to add another World Series pennant then they need a healthy Rivera plain and simple.
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