How long do Yankees expect CC Sabathia to be on DL, and who takes his rotation spot?

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia landed on the disabled list on Monday due to right knee inflammation.

NEW YORK — The Yankees hope one turn through the rotation will be enough time to get CC Sabathia back on the mound.

Sabathia landed on the disabled list on Monday due to right knee inflammation. The knee has given Sabathia trouble in the past, and it got to the point where Sabathia alerted the team to a problem.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the inflammation wasn’t too bad, giving him optimism that Sabathia could rejoin the rotation after a 10-day stint on the DL.

“He kind of had to grind through that last start, as well as he did pitch with it,” Boone said. “He kind of came to us and was like, ‘It was barking pretty well.’ So we decided best by DLing him now. Maybe only means he misses one start and we contain that.” 

deGrom, Mets beat Yanks

Sabathia still managed to throw six scoreless innings in a 7-2 Yankees win on Sunday. 

The Yankees will use right hander Luis Cessa in the rotation in Sabathia’s place. Cessa will start on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, although day wasn’t originally slotted for Sabathia. Bumping Cessa up will allow the Yankees to give extra rest to Masahiro Tanaka, who will start on Thursday.

Going with Cessa in the rotation for at least one start means the Yankees won’t turn back to Sonny Gray yet. After being demoted to the bullpen on Aug. 2, Gray pitched three scoreless innings in his first appearance out of the pen before surrendering two runs on five hits in one inning during his second relief outing on Sunday.

Cessa isn’t currently on the Yankees’ active 25-man roster, so the team will need to make an additional move to add him prior to Wednesday’s 7:05 first pitch. Along with placing Sabathia on the DL on Monday, the Yankees added right-handed reliever George Kontos and infielder Ronald Torreyes. They assigned first baseman Luke Voit to Triple-A.

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