Yankees reliever Jonathan Loáisiga needs elbow surgery and will be sidelined 10 to 12 months

NEW YORK (AP) — With a downcast look and a soft voice, New York Yankees reliever Jonathan Loáisiga said he needs season-ending elbow surgery and will be sidelined for 10 to 12 months.

A 29-year-old right-hander, Loáisiga said he felt a pop in his elbow while throwing a changeup to Jorge Barrosa, his final batter in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 6-5, 11-inning win at Arizona.

“Very frustrating. Really tough,” Loáisiga said through a translator Saturday in a nearly empty Yankees clubhouse. “Last year the injury took me out of the game for quite some time. And this year, after this, I’m going to end up losing the rest of the season. So tough moment to deal with but at the same time there’s a will inside and I want to be out there pitching, so you have to use that as motivation and rely on that to carry you through a moment like this.”

Also Saturday, third baseman DJ LeMahieu said he has resumed baseball activities as he recovers from a broken right foot caused by a foul ball on March 16.

Loáisiga has a forearm strain caused by a torn ulnar collateral ligament and will have surgery with Texas Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister. Loáisiga had Tommy John surgery with Yankees head team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad on May 1, 2016, and returned to the mound in June 2017 in the Gulf Coast League.

Loáisiga said he anticipates this operation will be ligament repair rather than replacement, known as Tommy John surgery. The rehab time for repair usually is shorter.

“It’s looking like the repair, but once you get in there you never know for certain,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think they’ll see once they make the final call on what they’re going to do and then once you get in there, what you find, as well.”

Loáisiga is 19-11 with a 3.44 ERA in 152 relief appearances and 11 starts.

He didn't pitch for the Yankees between May 9 and Aug. 15 in 2019 because of a strained right shoulder, between Sept. 1 and 16 in 2020 because of an unspecified medical condition, between July 9 and 24 in 2021 because of COVID-19, between Sept. 3 and 29 that year because of a strained right shoulder, between May 22 and July 14 in 2022 because of right shoulder inflammation, and between April 5 and Aug. 8 last year with right elbow inflammation. That injury also ended his season on Sept. 9.

“It's kind of been pretty much something every year that’s either tripped him up for sometimes short periods of time, obviously sometimes longer," Boone said. "Hopefully whatever road he goes down here, this is something that serves him well moving forward in his career because he is a really good pitcher.”

Loáisiga is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He didn't want to think about the possibility he had thrown his final pitch for the Yankees.

“No, no, no,” he said. “My mind is not there right now. My mind is on what I need to do next. go see the doctor, go through this and find my way getting back here.”

The 35-year-old LeMahieu has been out since fouling a ball off the foot during a spring training game. He opened the season on the 10-day injured list.

LeMahieu took batting practice Friday for the first time since getting hurt but said he isn't ready for game at-bats. After taking batting practice, fielding grounders and running the bases in the next week, he may be ready for a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment.

“I don't anticipate it's super long,” he said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

New York Yankees pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga makes the play for an out on a ball hit by Arizona Diamondbacks' Joc Pederson in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Phoenix. Loáisiga said he needs season-ending elbow surgery and will be sidelined for 10-to-12 months. The29-year-old right-hander, said he felt a pop in his elbow while throwing a changeup to Jorge Barrosa, his final batter in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 6-5, 11-inning win at Arizona. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

New York Yankees pitcher Jonathan Loáisiga throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Phoenix. Loáisiga said he needs season-ending elbow surgery and will be sidelined for 10-to-12 months. The29-year-old right-hander, said he felt a pop in his elbow while throwing a changeup to Jorge Barrosa, his final batter in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 6-5, 11-inning win at Arizona. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

New York Yankees pitcher Jonathan Loáisiga throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth inning during a baseball game, Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Phoenix. Loáisiga said he needs season-ending elbow surgery and will be sidelined for 10-to-12 months. The29-year-old right-hander, said he felt a pop in his elbow while throwing a changeup to Jorge Barrosa, his final batter in the ninth inning of Wednesday's 6-5, 11-inning win at Arizona. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A humanitarian crisis is worsening in northeastern Mali where armed groups linked to Islamic State have besieged major towns leaving residents including some 80,000 children vulnerable to malnutrition, locals and an aid group warned Wednesday.

The town of Ménaka has been under siege for four months, driving up the prices of food. Other essential goods like medication are increasingly hard to find, residents and aid groups say.

“The humanitarian situation is catastrophic, with displaced people going from house to house asking for food for their families. Children are threatened with starvation,” Wani Ould Hamadi, deputy mayor of the town of Ménaka, told the Associated Press.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Col. Assimi Goita, who took charge in Mali after a second coup in 2021, promised to beat back the armed groups, but the United Nations and other analysts say the government has rapidly lost ground.

The aid group Save the Children said some 80,000 children were trapped inside the town of Ménaka facing malnutrition and disease, and many were unaccompanied having fled violence elsewhere..

“Children in Menaka are trapped in a living nightmare. Let us be clear: unless the blockade is lifted , starvation and disease will led to deaths,” Siaka Ouattara, the country director, said in a statement.

Ayouba Ag Nadroun, a man who fled to Ménaka to escape violence in other parts of the country said he was unable to provide for his extended family of some 15 members, including many women and children, and surviving on scarce handouts of aid. “I have no job, how can I help them?” he told the AP.

“The blockades subject villagers to violence, hunger and fear and have long been a tactic used by these jihadist groups to punish communities for their perceived support of the government,” said Sahel analyst Corinne Dufka adding that they had often succeeded in pressuring the communities to sign non-aggression accords with the groups.

Mali's leader, Goita, has promised to return the country to democracy in early 2024. But in September, the junta canceled elections scheduled for February 2024 indefinitely, citing the need for further technical preparations.

Last month, his ruling junta ordered all political activities to stop, and the following day ordered the media to stop reporting on political activities.

Armed groups besieging towns in northeastern Mali driving residents, many children, to hunger

Armed groups besieging towns in northeastern Mali driving residents, many children, to hunger

In this 2018 photograph released by Mouvement pour le Salut de l'Azawad, Islamic State group commander Abu Huzeifa, known by the alias Higgo, poses in uniform. Mali's army said in a statement late Monday, April 29, 2024, that Huzeifa was killed by Malian state forces. The United States had announced a reward of up to $5 million reward for anyone providing information about him. Huzeifa was believed to have helped carry out an attack in 2017 on U.S. and Nigerien forces in Tongo Tongo, Niger, which led to the deaths of four Americans and four Nigerien soldiers. (AP Photo)