Xavier Nady Injured Arm Last Night

The Yankees right fielder Xavier Nady left the game last night during the seventh inning after experiencing “extreme pain” in his right elbow and will undergo an MRI this afternoon to find out the extent of the injury.

According to Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, arm trouble is nothing new to Nady:

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“Nady, who underwent Tommy John reconstructive surgery on the same elbow in September of 2001, felt the pain after making a throw to the infield on Carlos Peña’s RBI single in the seventh inning.

"We’ll keep our fingers crossed," Joe Girardi said. "Whenever you have a sharp pain like that, it’s scary."

Nady remained in the game and had to make another throw to second on the next play when Pat Burrell hit a sac fly to right, but the outfielder removed himself from the game after that inning.

"I’ve dealt with elbow issues before," Nady said. " lot of times, it’s just bothersome and kind of irritating, but tonight it was pretty painful. The way it felt, I had to say something."

Nady said he was "definitely nervous" about the MRI, although he’s hoping it’s nothing more than some scar tissue breaking up in his arm.

"I’ll try to be optimistic as much as I can,” he said. “It’s just frustrating because it’s felt good for a while."

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So it turns out that injuries might straighten out the outfield logjam after all and nobody has to worry about getting Nick Swisher enough playing time. This was my entire argument all offseason, why trade your depth when you almost always need it?

If Nady doesn’t miss significant time the Yankees won’t miss a beat. If he has an extended DL stay then the Yankees better hope that DH Hideki Matsui is just in a slump and will return to full productivity soon. Otherwise, this could expose Matsui as a weak link in the lineup.

If he does land himself on the DL it is possible that the Yankees will call up Juan Miranda who would essentially be replacing Swisher as the backup first baseman. This is even more likely because of Mark Teixeira’s recent wrist issues.