Yankees lose Teixeira for 10 weeks with wrist injury

An already shaky start to the Yankees season is starting to develop this very disturbing trend: injuries.

Mark Teixeira is the latest in a long line of Bronx Bombers who have hit the DL this spring, after the first baseman was diagnosed with an ECU tendon strain in his right wrist that will sideline him for the next 10 weeks.

Teixeira hurt the wrist while batting off a tee during a practice for the World Baseball Classic in Arizona. The Yankees practice in Florida, so Tex was 3,000 miles away from his real team when the injury occurred.

The injury will likely bring into question, once again, the legitimacy of the WBC, which is in its third installment since 2006. Like 2006 and 2009, all 30 major league teams reported to camp early, and required their players to get into shape a lot quicker because the classic would take two to three weeks out of spring training for players who decided to participate in it.

While it is fair to say that this injury could have easily happened in spring training at the Yankees facility, the fact that it happened in Arizona, just days after Teixeira left the team to join "team USA" for the WBC is another reason why this exhibition needs to be moved out of Spring Training, if not canceled all together.

The WBC does nothing to contribute to the baseball season; it is another opportunity for players to overexert themselves in what amounts to meaningless games, and risk injury.

Eventually the WBC was going to ruin a teams season, and right now it has taken Teixeira away from the Yankees for 10 weeks. They will now be without him until late May. The Yankees are already without Curtis Granderson, who is out 10 weeks with a forearm injury. Alex Rodriguez is done for the season, and Derek Jeter has yet to play a preseason game.

So now, the Yankees have to go out and try to find help. It won't be easy, because teams will ask for a lot in return, and the season hasn't even started yet. It is easy to point out Kansas City, Minnesota, and Colorado as possible trade partners for the likes of Billy Butler, Justin Morneau or Michael Cuddyer; but these teams can't assume that they are going to lose 90 plus games at this point in the season, and wave a white flag just to help the Yankees.

2013 is starting to feel like a grind for the Bronx Bombers, something they have not felt in a long, long time.