Yankees' Didi Gregorius headed for Tommy John surgery with Manny Machado headed for free agency

Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius injured his right elbow during an ALDS game last weekend in Boston.

NEW YORK — The Yankees dropped a bombshell Friday near the end of manager Aaron Boone’s 40-minute season-ending wrap-up interview at Yankee Stadium:

Shortstop Didi Gregorius blew out his throwing elbow in a playoff game last weekend in Boston and is headed for Tommy John surgery.

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This is a huge blow for the Yankees, who figure to be without one of their stars at least for the first two-to-three months of 2019.

Now what?

First off, there is no surgery date scheduled yet for Gregorius.

More importantly, Yankees GM Brian Cashman says there is no plan in place yet for a short-term replacement for Gregorius.

The Yankees say their best in-house option is moving Gleyber Torres, an All-Star second baseman as a rookie this season, to short until Gregorius returns.

Last year, Torres had Tommy John surgery to his throwing arm after tearing a ligament in his right elbow on a head-first slide into home plate in a Triple-A game.

The best overall option, of course, is free agent shortstop Manny Machado, a superstar could be on the Yankees’ radar as a third baseman even though the club already has a young star at the position in AL Rookie of the Year favorite Miguel Andujar.

“How do we react this situation?” Cashman said. “We’ll either stay with what we got or we can pursue something stronger. We’re too early in the process to have any of the strategies mapped out.”

The news of Gregorius’ injury was announced three days after the Yankees’ season ended Tuesday night with a 4-3 loss to the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALDS.

The Yankees are saying Gregorius thinks that he hurt his elbow during the ALDS chasing down a ball that hit off the Green Monster in left field and caromed behind shortstop. Gregorius raced out to get the ball and slid to get to it, then made an awkward throw to second.

“On the throw, (Gregorius) felt it,” Cashman said. “He just got checked out (Thursday) by our doctor and unfortunately he needs Tommy John surgery on his throwing arm.

Also, the Yanks think this injury is the result of Gregorius already having a partial tear to his throwing elbow when he joined the franchise in a December 2014 trade from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“(The new injury) was the result of a sleeping giant, I guess,” Cashman said.

Gregorius, 28, hit .268 with 27 homers and 86 RBI in 134 games this season. He also had just six errors in 130 games at shortstop.

“We’re going to be without his abilities for some time, until sometime next summer,” Cashman said. “Hopefully he’ll have a great surgery and we all know he’ll do everything necessary and appropriate to get back and it’s our job to hold the fort until he does.”

As for the possibility of signing Machado, Cashman said, “We’re scheduling the pro scouting meetings – we have those scheduled sooner than we wanted to – but we’ll go through our process and weigh all of the information.”

In other Yankees injury news, Cashman said left-hander CC Sabathia underwent another knee surgery on Thursday. The long-time Yankee is headed for free agency and isn’t expected to return in 2019.

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.