Joba on the DL

Yankees reliever, Joba Chamberlain has been put on the 15-day DL, but that is surely about to change. It has just been discovered that Chamberlain has a torn elbow ligament, which will probably require Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

This is a huge blow to the Yankee bullpen. Joba has been the set up man for Mariano Rivera with Rafael Soriano on the DL and he's been pitching great lately. In May, Chamberlain posted a 2.08 ERA in 13 IP with 10 SO. He also marks the second pitcher the Yankees will lose for the season in addition to Pedro Feliciano. This injury leaves just Mariano Rivera and David Robertson as the most dominant pitchers left in the pen with Luis Ayala on the rise.

I wonder if the Yankees will call up Mark Prior, who had a good spring training from the minors to help strengthen the pen. Also, I would look for the Yankees to look for relief pitching around the trade deadline. They're always a very active team at the end of July, except this was a very unexpected casualty that is very costly, so instead of getting a potentially available Felix Hernandez as a starting pitcher, the Yankees will need to look at relief pitchers instead.