BRONX — The Yankees weren’t looking at Harrison Bader to be any sort of savoir upon his return to the lineup on Tuesday, but it felt good for once for the Bombers to be getting someone back from the injured list instead of putting someone on it.
Bader returned to the Yankees lineup from a strained oblique and batted fifth in the order against the Cleveland Guardians. His return came at a time when New York has been battered and bruised with a number of players on the IL, including outfielder Aaron Judge, which has put greater significance on Bader getting healthy.
While Bader has been aware of the situation it hasn’t put any extra pressure on him to get back into the lineup.
“That can never be a part of the equation,” Bader said at his locker before the game. “It’s easy to kind of fall into that, but you know, there’s never any pressure from the Yankees on their side to push anything along. The same on my side. You know, I know what I have to feel to be effective for this team to help them win. And that doesn’t involve pushing the timeline up in any way. … You kind of have to separate the two and realize that my situation individually coming back is different than what the team is really needing.”
The Yankees have been hurting in the worst way for offense as the injuries have pilled up in the Bronx. The team has one of the lowest batting averages, OBP and OPS in Major League Baseball this season and they’ve scored three or fewer runs in their last 15 games dating back to April 10 going into Tuesday night’s game.
Bader has shown that he can provide some offense, slashing 333/.429/.833 with five home runs during the Yankees’ playoff run last season. He had struggled a bit at the plate during his rehab stints going just 3-for-25.
The Yankee outfielder said he was feeling “awesome” at the plate and that he had been aware of the tough situation that the Yankees had found themselves in at the start of the year.
“It’s important to stay mentally involved and stay locked in for when that time does come,” Bader said, “And you kind of do progress to where you can, you know, turn around the next day and play in a game that you kind of slot in. A lot of that has to do with the mental approach to kind of how you go about every single day. I was locked in, and again, I’m just excited to be able to plug myself back in here and feel ready to go out there and compete with these guys.”
Bader said in response to a question from amNewYork that being on the outside looking in didn’t give him any special perspective on the Yankees’ offensive woes.
While manager Aaron Boone knows that Bader won’t turn the Yanks’ entire fortunes around, he has the ability to provide a much-needed spark.
“Obviously a guy that when he got back to us at the end of last year and on in the playoffs went on pretty special offensive run as well,” Boone said about Bader. “He brings some power and some speed to the lineup as well as premium defense. With what we’ve gone through it is nice to get somebody back in the mix.”
