The Yankees’ injury concerns seem to be far from over. Harrison Bader and Luis Severino, the two most prominent players they need in their lineup, may delay their 2023 debut in pinstripes.
Harrison Bader starts rehab
Harrison Bader, the Yankees’ center fielder, looked like himself during his first comeback game with Double-A Somerset on Friday night. Harrison Bader, who went 1 for 3 at the plate on Friday, is very focused on what’s going on right now. He isn’t thinking about his past of injuries, how strong he was in the playoffs last fall, or when he’ll be back in pinstripes. He is taking this step by step, day by day.
On defense, the outfielder moved quickly and showed off his strong arm with a long throw to third base after making a catch in the left-center gap. Harrison Bader also did some damage on offense. In his third and last at-bat of the game, he hit an RBI double into the corner of left field.
“I feel good, checked off all the boxes in the rehab process to get back on the field and play,” Harrison Bader told before the game. “Looking forward to going out there, getting my game ready to go help the team in the Bronx.”
Rehab assignments are often a quick way to see if a player is healthy enough to come off the injured list. They also give position players a chance to see live baseball. For Harrison Bader, Somerset will be his home for a little while longer as the outfielder works his way back from an abdominal strain.
The plan is for Harrison Bader to stay with the Patriots for the next 10 days, or maybe even up to two weeks. Aaron Boone, the manager of the Yankees, gave the schedule on Friday afternoon. It was a long rehab assignment, which Boone had been hinting at ever since Bader started playing baseball again.
If everything goes well as he starts to play more innings and more back-to-back games in Somerset, Harrison Bader could rejoin the Yankees on May 1, when they play their first game back at Yankee Stadium after a road trip to Minnesota and Texas.
This doesn’t mean that Harrison Bader took a step backward. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t making progress in the right direction. On the contrary, Bader has passed every test related to his rehab so far with flying colors. During this homestand, he worked out more and more at Yankee Stadium. On Friday, he left for Somerset. It’s just a slow build for a player who missed most of the spring training and is working back from an injury in a sensitive spot.
“There’s a bit of a timeline but that’s to be adjusted,” Bader said. “Just remaining present and getting solid healthy reps to eventually get to a point, hopefully pretty soon, where I’m back in the Bronx and helping that team win some baseball games.”
Harrison Bader got hurt when, in a Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals on March 8, he missed a swing and quickly felt pain in his left side. He couldn’t play in any more spring training games, so he missed the rest of the season. He had recently played against live pitchers, like when he faced a starting in rehab, Luis Severino, at Yankee Stadium earlier this week. However, Friday was the first time he had a turn at bat in a game since the injury.
Luis Severino will not be back soon for the Yankees
During his recovery from a shoulder strain, Yankees pitcher Luis Severino prayed to God for help. He didn’t get it. When the right-hander was shut down during spring training, he said he’d be lucky to miss only three or four games.
Luis Severino has already missed four games, and he won’t even be able to start a rehab job for at least another week. The Yankees keep saying that he is doing well.
Before Sunday’s game between the Yankees and the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, Luis Severino pitched to batters for the second time in three days. But he has to wait for four days to throw to batters again so that he can throw once every five days like a starting pitcher.
If Severino doesn’t feel any arm pain after two more of these live batting practice sessions, he will likely be cleared to throw in a minor-league game. Last season, Severino had the same injury and was out of action from July 14 to September 21.
The Yankees really need Severino and Carlos Rodon, who has back pain while coming back from an injury. Clarke Schmidt is having a hard time filling in, and Jhony Brito hasn’t made it out of the first inning in three of his four starts.
Rodon has been on the sick list since the first day of the season, just like Severino. He has a left forearm strain. That injury has healed, but the lefty’s progress has slowed in the last two weeks because of back pain, which is supposed to be a small setback.
