Fernando Cruz placed on IL in Yankees bullpen blow

One of the Yankees’ better pitchers who owns perhaps the Yankees’ best pitch will miss some time.

Fernando Cruz, though, does not anticipate missing that much time.

“I’m going back to be back soon,” said the righty, who was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to Monday, before the series finale against the Rangers in The Bronx on Thursday.

Cruz anticipates being sidelined for the minimum 15 days after dealing with a shoulder issue for the past three weeks that he aggravated in his most recent appearance on Saturday against the Mets.

The Yankees placed Fernando Cruz on the injured list.

The righty underwent tests that showed inflammation but “everything looks good, everything looks normal,” Cruz said.

After the MRI, the plan was for Cruz to take a few days off after receiving a cortisone shot, but the shot has drained his strength.

Cruz had not thrown for several days — which is why he was not used Wednesday, the Yankees instead pitching Ian Hamilton for a second straight day — before beginning to build his arm up again on Thursday. He threw on the field and will join the team on the upcoming road trip to continue throwing.

“I still feel like the shot put my arm in a weak position,” said Cruz, who anticipates his next week and a half will be spent strengthening his shoulder so he can be activated once eligible.

“We don’t think it’s anything too significant,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So hopefully this little downtime gets him where he needs to be.”

The Yankees will miss Cruz, who has been an excellent setup man since arriving from the Reds and owns a 2.66 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 23 ⅔ innings, his splitter virtually untouchable.

Fernando Cruz will miss some time.

To replace the righty the Yankees called up Brent Headrick, who had pitched well with the Yankees to begin the season (5 ⅓ scoreless innings) before being optioned and had missed some time with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with an oblique injury.

The hard-throwing lefty can cover multiple innings, which is significant for a tired bullpen.

“He’s a guy we’ve liked since spring training and feel like can really help us,” Boone said.