Yanks’ Voit needs knee surgery, giving chance for Jay Bruce

TAMPA, Fla. ( AP) — Major league home run champion Luke Voit needs knee surgery to repair a partial meniscus tear, an injury that opened a New York Yankees roster spot for Jay Bruce on Saturday as a converted first baseman.

Voit will not have any baseball activities for three weeks after the operation on his left knee, manager Aaron Boone said. Voit is expected back in May.

“Let’s have the surgery, see how the early days are and then we will be able to evaluate,” Boone said.

The injury to Voit, who hit 22 homers in the pandemic-shortened season, played a role in the decision to add Bruce, who attended spring training with a minor league contract.

“We’re going to be missing Luke but I know Jay Bruce is going to come in and do some special things for us,” Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. “Luke is a big part of this team, big part of this offense. He’s a really vocal guy in the clubhouse who gets us motivated. I’m excited to have Jay Bruce on his team. This is why he came to this team, was to help anyway he can and help us win a championship.”

Voit had an MRI exam on Friday, which led to discussions that night on whether the slugger would go through a treatment program and try to play through it or have surgery.

“Decided to go in and have that cleaned up,” Boone said. “Functionally he was playing but was still dealing with some swelling in there after games and things like that. Felt like calendar wise it was best to get this taken care of with hopefully putting it behind him for the bulk of the season.”

Bruce has played 1,510 major league games in the outfield and 54 at first base, including two last season.

“It was part of the equation,” Boone said. “So, Jay is with us. I expect him to play a lot and a lot of first base for us. Excited to see what he can do for us.”

Bruce gets a contract paying $1.35 million while in the major leagues and $150,000 should he be assigned to the minors.

“I was waiting on the Yankees to let me know,” said Bruce, who was informed about the decision early Saturday morning. “Clearly this is where I wanted to be. This is why I signed here. I’m extremely excited.”

Bruce is hitting .194 average with two homers and three RBIs in 31 atbats during spring training.

Boone said outfielder Michael Tauchman, who is out of minor league options, is set to be an extra outfielder.