Mark Teixeira: Out for the Season?

We may have seen the last of Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira this season. Yes, it's true. If reports that surfaced this morning are true, Teixeira's injury is a lot more serious that has been previously reported. ESPN's Wallace Matthews reported the following earlier this morning;

The injury that will keep New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira out of the lineup until May at the earliest is not a wrist strain, as originally reported, but a partially torn tendon sheath that could potentially require season-ending surgery.

That would be some serious bad news for the Yankees and fantasy owners. Matthews provides the following quote from Teixeira:

"This is one of those things I can't come back too early,'' he said. "We saw last season when I tried to play too early [with a calf injury] what happened. If I try to play too early from this we could miss the whole season, and we don't want that. I don't know if it's the beginning of May, the end of May, the beginning of June, I don't know when it is but we got a whole bunch of season left and the time that really matters is the playoffs.''

Based on these comments, Teixeira is not going to rush back from the serious wrist injury. The possibility of missing the whole season has a huge impact on the Yankees plans for returning to the playoffs again in 2013, and on fantasy owners who have drafted him this season. Matthews goes on to compare Teixeira's wrist injury to the same injury that Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista suffered last season. Bautista's injury required season-ending surgery after a stint on the 15-day DL last season. If I remember correctly, Bautista returned from the DL and played just one or two games before re-injuring the wrist and electing to have surgery.

Owners in deeper mixed leagues and AL-only leagues will feel the most impact, as the first base position thins out quickly in each league type. Owners in shallower mixed and AL-only leagues will have an easier time replacing Teixeira's production than those in deeper leagues.

For more on the Teixeira news, check out Pinstriped Bible, the SB Nation Yankees blog.