Jorge Posada Heads to Disabled List

It didn't just rain on the Yankees in the Bronx on Monday night, it poured. They waited 2 1/2 hours to lose a fourth straight game to the Red Sox, saw their manager ejected in the proceedings and watched their starting catcher limp off the field with a hamstring injury. It will be a while before they see Jorge Posada on the field again.

Posada was placed on the disabled list on Tuesday with what's being called a Grade 2 strain of his right hamstring. That means it is a partial tear, and it probably means that it will be June before he'll be back behind the plate or playing DH for the Yankees.

There's never a good time to lose a big bat from the lineup, but this is a particularly bad week for the Yankees to lose Posada. They've got one more with Boston and then a pair with the Rays before heading to Baltimore on Friday. That may be the night that Alex Rodriguez makes his 2009 debut, but the benefit of his addition to the lineup will be negated somewhat by the offensive dropoff from Posada to Jose Molina or Francisco Cervelli, the Double-A catcher called up to take Posada's place on the roster.

Joe Girardi addressed the future behind the plate before Tuesday night's game.

"We don't want to play Jose seven days in a row, but Jose is going to play most of the games," he said.

When Posada was shelved by a shoulder injury last summer, the Yankees learned that you don't really want to play Molina more than two days in a row. He's a fine defensive catcher, but he's a black hole offensively. Without Posada, the Yankees lost their offensive edge on other teams as Molina, Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano ate away at their productive players.

In the longer term, Posada's injury puts a lot of pressure on Cano, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira. The team knows they can't expect much offensively out of their catcher or center fielder, which means that Cano and Swisher has to keep producing at a strong clip. Teixeira has to start stroking the ball after a rough first month of the season. He hit a pair of home runs on Monday night, which may indicate the worm has started to turn.

Damon and Matsui need to produce, but even more than that they need to stay healthy. Damon and Matsui have already struggled with aches and pains this season, and losing either one while Posada is sidelined might prove to be too much for the Yankee lineup to overcome.