Just one day before position players reported to New York Yankees camp, the battle for backup first baseman settled.
Tyler Austin, who slashed .241/.300/.458 with five homers in just 90 plate appearances and was a favorite to enter the regular season as a backup or platoon option wth Greg Bird, suffered a fracture in his left navicular bone during batting practice and will be out for six weeks.
New York will probably be without him until mid-May or even June, depending on the rehab assignment, but there’s no such thing as too much depth and that’s exactly what the Yankees have.