BRONX — The Yankees Yankees are 14 games into the regular season and they’re still waiting to be fully healthy, but several guys working their way back from injury are taking steps in the right direction.
Injured third baseman Josh Donaldson (right hamstring tightness) and infielder DJ LeMahieu (quad) both did fielding work on Friday ahead of the Yankees’ evening meeting with the Minnesota Twins. Donaldson was placed on the injured list retroactively to April 6 last Saturday and LeMahiue was out of the starting lineup for the third straight game for New York.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone indicated both players were on the right track, saying that LeMahieu was “doing better.”
“He’s available off the bench (Friday),” Boone said. “I made that call (Thursday) night that I wasn’t going to have him in the lineup (Friday), but it does seem like he continues to make improvements.”
When asked if LeMahieu would be in the lineup on Saturday, Boones responded that “we’ll see, hopefully.”
The Yankees skipper wasn’t sure when Donaldson would come off the IL. The Yankees have a day off on Monday and the ballclub could opt to wait until Tuesday to bring him back from the injured list.
“I haven’t gone down that road other than I know he’s doing really well,” Boone said. “He looks good. He’s moving well. His BP looks good. We’ll see where we are over the next couple days.”
#Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave the latest update on Josh Donaldson’s return. pic.twitter.com/FRaCHSta2B
— amNewYork Sports (@AMNY_Sports) April 14, 2023
Where is Carlos Rodon at?
When discussing the Yankees’ big offseason addition, Boone said that Rodon was “ready to take off.” Rodon threw on Friday and will throw a bullpen session on Sunday or Monday and then will throw live BP later in the week if there aren’t any issues.
“He’s going to have to be built up quite a bit,” Boone said about Rodon, who only had one spring training start before suffering a forearm injury.
