It speaks poorly of the new Yankees administration that they might double down on an injury, but Jorge Posada’s shoulder injury has given them the opportunity to take a bad situation and make it worse, and it seems as if they might take it.

As the Yankees began this season, the focus was on how new manager Joe Girardi would interpolate young pitchers such as Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Joba Chamberlain into what has traditionally been a veteran staff. That was only to be expected, as there are thousands of people who weren’t alive the last time the Yankees gave this much exposure to so many young pitchers at one time. That was in the mid-60s, when the team’s starting rotation was comprised of such 25-and-under hurlers as Mel Stottlemyre, Al Downing, and Fritz Peterson. There is no precedent in team history for relying as heavily on pitchers like this season’s young guns, all three of whom are presently 23 or younger.

This focus on pitching has generally kept the focus off of a task which may actually prove far more complex, making sure that the team’s aged lineup, where Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera are the only key contributors younger than 32, maintains its spark. Through Tuesday’s game , this hasn’t happened. The Yankees have averaged a fraction over 3.00 runs a game, hitting just five home runs — seven teams have hit at least twice as many — and generally eschewing their trademark plate discipline. The batters are looking at a fair number of pitches per time at the plate, but despite their patience they are finishing with outs, not walks.

It is worth repeating that it is very early and that the offense will get going at some point, perhaps even by the time you read this. Yet, there are batters in the lineup that, while they have great résumés, are suspect because of age and recent performance. Some, like Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu, are not under contract past this year, and so the team has limited incentive to keep them in the lineup should they not perform (to date, the latter has and the former has not). Others, like Posada and Johnny Damon, will be on the payroll into next year and beyond, so the team will be reluctant to make changes too quickly. Still others, like Derek Jeter, are both signed and sainted, and won’t be moved with anything short of a crane and some dynamite.

Despite these impediments, Girardi’s job is to be merciless when it comes to improving the team. Of course, that requires him to correctly guess where improvements can be made, a talent some managers have and some do not. Those that don’t are obvious — they’re the ones who keep writing the names of superannuated vets into the lineup despite better options.

In Posada’s injury there have been disturbing implications that Girardi could reside among the group of blinkered skippers. Posada’s shoulder strain, which apparently will not force him to the disabled list, was said to interfere with his throwing, not his hitting. The possibility existed, then, that even if the injury prevented him from getting behind the plate for an extended period of time, he would still be able to swing the bat as the designated hitter.

Girardi apparently rejected this suggestion, not wanting to remove Hideki Matsui from his DH role. By extension, this also means that he did not want to move Matsui to left field (a position he has proved healthy enough to play) and bench Johnny Damon. This would have been a tremendous misjudgment. In his career, Damon has rarely been much more than a slightly above-average hitter at the best of times, and a below-average hitter at his worst — and the minimum contribution expected from his bat has only risen as Damon has shifted to left field, more of a power position than center. Last year, major-league left fielders batted .277 AVG/.347 OBA/.453 SLG. The year before they hit .278/.354/.464.

It is doubtful that Damon’s hitting will rise to that level. It did not last year, it has not over the course of his career, and it has not during the present season. Posada, however, should reach those numbers with ease, though he is older and unlikely to repeat last year’s .338 batting average. A .277/.380/.478 hitter, he is more likely to come closer in failing to reach them than Damon. The Yankees would also gain an additional benefit from shifting Damon to the bench, adding the pinch runner and outfield substitute they are lacking.

The Yankees hitters are already demonstrating the realities of their collective age, that they will undershoot their historic norms and be more prone to debilitating aches and pains. Jeter, Posada, and Damon are simply the first of many such problems for Girardi to negotiate. He didn’t see it that way this time, but perhaps it will come to him as the vets sit and the offense continues to sputter with Damon, Alberto Gonzalez, and Jose Molina.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.