‘Punch in the face’: Bader out 6 weeks
TAMPA — Harrison Bader’s final swing Wednesday in the Yankees’ exhibition game against the Cardinals could be his last one for a while. The center fielder said he felt rushed in his second and final at-bat of the day and took an “awkward swing on a bad pitch.” The result: a strained left oblique that will knock him out for around six weeks, manager Aaron Boone revealed Saturday. “It’s definitely a punch in the face,” Bader said at Steinbrenner Field before the Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Phillies. Boone said that six weeks was the “give or take” time frame the Yankees are working with for Bader’s return to the team. That means they may have to fill the void in center field for at least the first three weeks of the regular season. The options to do so include Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Rafael Ortega and Estevan Florial, depending on how the Yankees shape their 26-man roster to break camp. “Hopefully [Bader] can beat [the sixweek target],” Boone said. “I think they’re a little surprised at what he’s able to do already and how he feels already. But obliques obviously are about as tricky as they come. We’ll kind of have a better idea a couple weeks from now how he’s doing, what he’s ready to start and things like that.” While Bader said he felt rushed during the at-bat in question, he did not attribute that to the new pitch clock — under which batters have to be ready to hit by the eight-second mark. “You just have at-bats where you feel super comfortable and you feel like you’re locked down,” he said. “Other times you feel like you’re not really dug into the dirt. I just think [Cardinals pitcher Wilking Rodriguez] did a really good job of holding the ball and disrupting my timing, which is all a competitive aspect of the game. I just took a bad swing, which I’m going to take many of in the course of a full season.” When Bader joined the Yankees last season at the trade deadline, he was wearing a walking boot because of plantar fasciitis. He made his impact felt once he got healthy, however, both on defense and with a power surge during the postseason. Reminiscent of how he approached his injury last season, Bader insisted he has quickly turned his focus to his recovery instead of sulking about being hurt again.
“A lot of times, you kind of rack your brain trying to figure out why something happened or what went wrong,” he said. “The reality is that a lot of times, nothing went wrong. I think life is random at times and especially when you’re as big and strong as we are, not only in the box but the guy we’re facing on the mound, he’s bringing it too, he’s just as strong. We’re moving really fast and sometimes things kind of spin out of control.”
Bader initially thought “it was just a little tweak,” but the Yankees sent him for an MRI exam on Thursday, which revealed the strain. He will join pitchers Carlos Rodon, Tommy Kahnle, Lou Trivino and Frankie Montas on the injured list to start the season, but Bader said he wasn’t concerned about missing significant time.
“I’m just looking forward to coming back when I’m ready to come back and be effective for this team,” he said.
In the meantime, the Yankees are expected to look internally for now to cover for Bader.
“Hopefully [by Opening Day] we kind of have an idea of, ‘OK, it’s going to be two more weeks or three more weeks,’ whatever,” Boone said. “So it’s like, ‘All right, how short-term of a situation are we looking at?’ That will factor in what our roster looks like. Could be a little different in two and a half weeks, you never know.
“We’ll try to make the best decision. It might be something where we’re mixing and matching a little for a couple weeks until Harrison gets back.”