When Xavier Nady left last Tuesday night's game with an elbow injury, initial reports were that he needed season-ending surgery. There were more tests and no official word, but in the absence of other information everyone assumed that Nady wouldn't be part of the mix for the rest of the season.
In this case, though, no news has turned out to be good news. Jon Heyman of SI.com is reporting that Nady only has a partial tear of the ligament in his right elbow, which means he won't need surgery and could be back in a month. A complete tear of his already reconstructed elbow would have meant the season, but it appears that Nady and the Yankees have dodged a bullet.
Now they just need Hideki Matsui to make it another month before he completely falls apart. His knees clearly aren't going to allow him to play a full season at designated hitter while providing anything close to the offense that the Yankees need from that spot. He's giving it his best shot, but he isn't ever going to be 100% unless there's some kind of magic elixir that gets discovered next Thursday.
The good news about Nady serves as a small reminder that despite the breathless coverage that's followed every Yankee loss, things have gone pretty well for the Bombers to this point in the season. Throw out Chien-Ming Wang's starts (please) and the team has performed just about as expected. If they remain on the happy side of .500, even by a game or two, until Alex Rodriguez comes back there will be a lot of reason to feel bullish about the team's long-term prognosis.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
