Which Yankee Will Go Down Next?

USA Today / Derick E. Hingle

That is probably the biggest question Yankee fans are asking now, as the reports of Mark Teixeira being out for 8-10 weeks with a strained wrist tendon have made it's way around the mediasphere. Tex suffered the injury yesterday while taking swings in the batting cage during warm-ups with the U.S. WBC team.

This incident is the second major injury for the Yankees in the past two weeks. On Feb. 24, Curtis Granderson broke his forearm during a Spring Training game after being hit by a pitch.  He too will be out for 8-10 weeks.

And of course, there's still the issues of Alex Rodriguez being out until mid-July or perhaps the entire season as he rehabs from his injured right hip; pitcher Michael Pineda still in the "slow" process of rehabbing from the torn labrum in his pitching elbow; Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter being "close" to coming off of the disabled list from last season, but still both not quite 100%.

Now, the good news about Tex's injury is that it will require no surgery. He'll rest the wrist for 4 weeks and then will begin rehab.

The bad news is that now, pretty much all of the Yankees long-ball power will be absent from the lineup when the season begins. With the exception of Robinson Cano, all of the Yankees who hit more than 15 homers last season are either on the disabled list or off the team (A-Rod, Tex, Grandy, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez and Nick Swisher). In total, the Yankees have essentially lost 180+ home runs.

To say that the Yankees are, at the moment, a "challenged" team is an understatement. Not only do they now have to scramble to replace their latest ailing superstars, but both Grandy and Tex have sustained injuries that could affect their production when they return.

We all need to keep our fingers crossed and beg the baseball gods not to let anything happen to Robinson Cano before the season begins.

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper