Jameson Taillon represents a test case and a possibility. The Yankees have him as an example of how to both handle Luis Severino this season and to not be restrained by expectations. 

The days of the Joba Rules are gone. Why guess at an innings limit? A player can create a baseline in spring training of his physical condition and, for example in the case of a pitcher, a club can spend the season tracking measurables such as range of motion and explosiveness off of force plates. And if a player moves into the red, they can be backed off before injury. 

Taillon hardly pitched in the two seasons before joining the Yankees, registering zero innings in 2020. But he made 29 starts last year and threw 144 ¹/₃ innings. His surgically repaired arm stayed sound and he ultimately finished the year needing ankle surgery. 

“I came in thinking about innings limits,” Taillon said, “and that was shot down and the [Yankees] are: ‘We’re gonna see how everybody is responding. We’re gonna consistently measure you in the training room and now you know if your external rotation is off 10 percent, maybe that is a time to back off a bit.’” 

Severino had hardly pitched in the previous three seasons. But he has made his four turns around the rotation in 2022, looking sound and improving with each outing. When Nestor Cortes starts Friday in Kansas City, it will mean every Yankees starter has taken the ball in his four turns. Don’t undersell that. One reason the Yankees are alone in first place and an AL-best 13-6 is health. 

The Yanks are one of just eight teams to use five starting pitchers this year. Only Miami and Milwaukee had used fewer than the Yankees’ 29 overall players. In the AL East, for example, the Rays already had deployed 36 players, the Blue Jays 34, and the Orioles and Red Sox 32 each. The Yankees had yet to use the injured list during the season and just to state the obvious — the more healthy games a team can get out of its best players the better. 

“I think we’re on higher ground,” Aaron Boone said as far as knowledge to keep players sound. “We’re always trying to work to get a little better, a little smarter on how we do things to keep guys healthy. So yeah, I feel like we’re in a way better place.” 

They could hardly have attacked this issue from a worse spot. In 2019, the Yankees set a major league record by putting 30 different players (covering 39 stints) on the injured list. Brian Cashman responded by overhauling the team’s strength and conditioning departments, namely hiring Eric Cressey to oversee the operation. As high rates of injuries persisted in 2020 and 2021, Cashman noted both the bizarre nature of the 2020 COVID season and the aftermath in 2021, while also insisting the results of what Cressey and his staff were installing would show over time. Was that an alibi? A stall? 

So far in 2022, it looks like an accurate read. As Chad Green, the rare Yankee to avoid the IL the past three seasons, said the healthy roster is not a coincidence, noting, “Freak injuries happen, but I think we are in a much better place than we were [the last few years] and that’s a credit to [the organization]. They have surrounded us with the best people possible to give everybody an individual program to keep us [healthy]. … Everybody has the same goal. Like nobody’s stepping on each other’s toes.” 

Of course, three weeks do not make a season. The Yankees used the IL just twice last April for Rougned Odor and Gio Urshela and then 10 times in May. So the long season will bring attrition and challenges and the true answer whether the Yankees have actually unlocked ways to stay healthier. It is an area every organization has been focused on recognizing that any team that gets the most out of its best players gains a huge advantage over the course of the season. The Yanks squeaked into the playoffs last year to some extent because the previously injury-touched Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton stayed mostly healthy and carried the otherwise lame offense. 

It also helps to play the Orioles. The Yankees lost two of three in Baltimore earlier this month. But they completed a 6-0 homestand by sweeping three games from the Orioles. That included a 10-5 triumph in the series finale matinee Thursday. The Yankees did not play well, but the Orioles played so much worse. Baltimore committed five errors and could have been charged with more. If someone told you the Orioles met in the parking lot before the game and were introduced to the sport then, it would have been believable. 

The Yanks did not commit an error, but did not play a clean game on defense. That contributed to bumping up Taillon’s pitch count, two runs against and the righty being removed after 4 ²/₃ innings. 

But the Yankees entered as one of the most efficient defensive teams in the sport, and Boone cited health as one of the reasons. It was expected that injury would likely force the manager’s hand in who to play regularly in the infield and DH spots with essentially one extra starting player. Boone, though, has just rotated through the group and believes not overexposing anyone early has kept them fresh. 

Only with time and the withering reality of a 162-game season will we truly see if the Yankees actually have found ways to keep their players on the field. But through 19 games and a rise to the AL’s best record there have been three keys to date: 

Terrific pitching, upgraded defense and much better health.