The New York Yankees have replaced reliever Ian Hamilton with fellow righty Mark Leiter Jr. on their ALCS roster, MLB announced Friday. Hamilton tweaked his left calf covering first base in the sixth inning of Thursday's Game 3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians. He went for an MRI on Friday that apparently revealed an injury significant enough to take him off the roster.
Here is Hamilton's injury:
By rule, players who are removed from the postseason roster due to injury are not eligible to be on the roster in the next round, so Hamilton's season is over even if the Yankees advance to the World Series. New York has a 2-1 series lead over Cleveland in the best-of-seven ALCS. Game 4 is Friday night at Progressive Field.
Hamilton, 29, missed more than two months with a lat strain during the regular season and had a 3.82 ERA with 41 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings around the injury. He's thrown only 1 2/3 innings this postseason. The Yankees picked up Leiter from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline. He had a 4.98 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings after the trade.
The Yankees dropped Game 3 after closer Luke Weaver surrendered a two-out, two-run, game-tying homer to Jhonkensy Noel in the ninth inning. Weaver and setup man Clay Holmes have pitched in every postseason game and the workload may be taking its toll. Hamilton was a candidate to take some high-leverage innings, but is now unavailable.
MLB reviews all injury substitutions in the postseason and Dr. Gary Green, the league's medical director, reviewed Hamilton's test results and medical information before the roster move was approved.
