CC Sabathia likely headed for an MRI for fluids in his knee

CC Sabathia is heading for an MRI on his knee after waking up to some fluids and swelling in his knee this morning following a rehab start with Double-A Trenton last night, Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters before the game.

He'll be shut down for a bit, and now his expected return date will be pushed back even further than what nobody already knew what it was going to be. The Yankees are awaiting results of the MRI before figuring out how they should move forward with this.

Sabathia will down on the DL back in May and it was revealed that he has a degenerative issue in his knee, which could be a major problem in the future. The Yankees were hoping to get him back sometime around the all-star break, but that was eventually pushed back to at least August.

With both Sabathia and Michael Pineda on the DL until who knows when, the Yankees' rotation has been in need of a boost, relying on Vidal Nuno, whose last two starts have actually been decent, David Phelps and Chase Whitley, a career minor league reliever that got off to a hot start in the big leagues before struggling in his last two starts, to carry this rotation behind an on again, off again Hiroki Kuroda and staff ace Masahiro Tanaka.

Getting him back just after the all-star break could have been like adding a pitcher through a trade, in that there was a chance Sabathia comes back to be a steady pitcher in the rotation, giving the quality innings and good starts that he's paid to produce.

Instead, the unknown timetable becomes even more of an unknown.

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