Yankees $9 million pitcher says he’ll play through a broken wrist by not fielding the ball

Chris O’Meara/APAndrew Miller wants to play through his broken wrist.

The New York Yankees were hit with some bad luck on Wednesday when star closer Andrew Miller was hit with a line drive and broke a bone in his right wrist.

It was seemingly bad news as Miller, who’s set to earn $9 million this season, saved 36 games last year while posting a 2.04 ERA.

However, Miller seems to have a nonchalant approach to the injury. Miller fractured his pisiform bone in his right wrist (Miller is a lefty), which he says isn’t an essential bone. He said he plans to play through the injury (via Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond):

“It’s my right hand; I don’t really need it. I don’t see any reason I can’t work around it unless for some reason a doctor tells me I have to protect it for some reason that we don’t foresee. I plan to be able to manipulate my glove around it and not really worry about it.”

And if a ground ball is hit his way?

“[Yankees shortstop] Didi’s [Gregorius] pretty good. I’ll just get out of the way and let him figure it out. I’m not really joking. I think that’s honestly the way it is, that the chances of me fielding the ball are pretty slim.”

Diamond spoke to Michael Hausman, the chief of hand and elbow surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who said that Miller should be able to play through the injury, so long as he can tolerate the pain.

Whether the Yankees will allow this is another question. The chances of further damaging his wrist is possible, and they may not be thrilled with having a player on the field who physically can’t field a ground ball.

If the Yankees let Miller onto the field, though, it sounds like he already has a plan.