Stanton’s return comes at key time
TORONTO — Giancarlo Stanton is still on track to return Tuesday when the Yankees open their final homestand of the regular season against the Angels at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Boone said. With the minor league seasons over, however, Stanton has been working out at the team’s minor league complex in Tampa and now does not have the luxury of ramping back up in Scranton or Trenton, so he may be eased back into it.
“It may be a situation, too, where we build him up where he doesn’t play the entire game … however many at-bats or innings in the outfield, then pull him and build him up that way,” Boone said before Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.
With the season-ending injury to Mike Tauchman, who strained his calf last weekend in Boston, and Aaron Hicks now likely to miss the rest of the season with a right elbow injury, Stanton’s return was important. With sluggers Gary Sanchez (strained groin) and Edwin Encarnacion (strained oblique) now also going to miss time, the Yankees really need Stanton’s bat to be ready when he returns.
Montgomery gets Sunday start: It has been 16 months since Jordan Montgomery last threw a pitch in a big league game. For the Yankees’ 26-year-old lefty, that May start last season against the Astros seems like a lifetime ago. He’s undergone Tommy John surgery and made the long, tedious and grueling journey back, with Sunday being the biggest step yet. Montgomery will start the Yankees’ series and season finale against the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.
“I am excited to just be here,” Montgomery said before Saturday ’s game. “Good to be back around the guys and watching baseball again and be a part of the team.”
Montgomery left his May 1, 2018 start against Houston with elbow pain just as he was starting to establish himself as a big league pitcher. He was 2-0 with a 3.62 ERA in six starts in 2018 before he was shut down.
With Dellin Betances and Luis Severino also returning this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone isn’t really sure how he will utilize his returning pitchers down the stretch.
Betances could be back pitching in the big leagues as soon as this weekend. The Yankees reliever pitched in a minor-league rehab game Friday night as the Double-A Trenton Thunder won their championship and rejoined the team on Saturday, Boone said.