38QUICK, PLAY BALL!
TAMPA — The Yankees are sooooooo close. After years of having injuries dictate their fate, the Bombers were ready to get out of Florida almost healthy. They took some blows, sure. Clarke Schmidt strained his elbow in his first bullpen session of spring and hasn’t thrown since and Robinson Chirinos broke his wrist. Zack Britton never really got started before he was shut down to have surgery on his elbow. He’ll miss a few months.
And the final week? The Yankees lost 2020 home run king Luke Voit to a partial tear in his knee. He is expected to miss at least a month after surgery.
But even after that? The Yankees felt good and ready.
“We’re ready to go. I think we’ve been ready for quite a while now. Usually the last couple weeks of spring training are kind of tough, more mentally, I think, than anything,” Aaron Judge said Friday. “April 1, it’s go time.” If the Yankees can get Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez into the season healthy . . . if they can keep Gerrit Cole on the mound and have the bulk of their rotation get through the season, they can be a World Series contender.
But there will be scares, like there wereMonday.
Judge was not in the lineup for the third straight game, the final game of spring training. With his history of injuries — he has missed significant time every year since playing 155 games in his breakout 2017 rookie season, Judge’s health has always been a concern.
But this spring, Judge said he felt great and had not skipped his playing routine that the public could see. His power lagged. He had not hit his first home run until Thursday night, when he hit an absolute monster that not only cleared the fence and concourse, but exited the ballpark.
“The power is gonna be there,” Judge said Monday afternoon. “It’s not necessarily something I always try to do. That’s a strength of mine. So I like to kind of work on other things that aren’t really a strength of mine and try to build them up.”
Adding to the intrigue surrounding Judge Monday, Aaron Boone was scratched from a scheduled Zoom session with the media and Brian Cashman was “delayed” from meeting with the media.
After late anxious moments, Yanks escape spring with no major issues
Later, Boone said Judge was under the weather and had cleared COVID protocols.
The only player on the roster to win a World Series with the Yankees, Brett Gardner, underlined the importance of health on this team. He also, however, pointed out that the Yankees have been able to overcome those injuries. They focused on building depth to prepare for that.
“I mean my expectations are very high,” Gardner said of the 2021 Yankees. “We’ve obviously got a great group of guys. I think we’ve had a really good camp, Obviously, a couple guys have injuries already, but we know that that’s gonna happen. I think that we’ve kind of weathered that storm and years past. So obviously I feel great about the depth that we have in place so I think our guys are in a good place and we’re excited to get to that point, get back up to New York and get the season started.”
WHERE BRUCE FITS
As the everyday first baseman to start the season, Jay Bruce will give Boone a power-hitting, left-handed option that he hasn’t had. It will also give him some new versatility with his lineup.
“I mean depending on who’s in there each and every day, obviously, depending on who we’re facing,” Boone said. “We’re facing Hyun-Jin Ryu on Opening day, so there’s a chance he could be, the one lefty in the lineup that day. Just try and kind of be strategic with where we put them. He’s a guy that’s always kind of more than held his own against lefties anyway. I feel pretty good about that.”
Mike Tauchman, Brett Gardner and Wade would be the other lefty bats available. Aaron Hicks is a switch hitter.