TAMPA — DJ LeMahieu’s availability for Opening Day is suddenly in jeopardy.
The Yankees’ veteran third baseman has a “pretty significant bone bruise” on his right foot, manager Aaron Boone said Monday, two days after LeMahieu smoked a foul ball off of it.
X-rays and a CT scan were negative, and LeMahieu saw a foot specialist on Monday for a hands-on evaluation that was “encouraging,” Boone said.
But whether LeMahieu would have enough of a runway to get back in time for Opening Day on March 28 in Houston was not immediately certain.
“We’ll see,” Boone said Monday at Steinbrenner Field after a 4-3 win over the Phillies. “We’re going to listen to the foot. I hope so. It’s certainly reasonable to think so. But I’m not going to speculate too much on that. We’re going to look at it every couple days.”
The Yankees may treat the situation with extra caution considering it is the same right foot that has given LeMahieu trouble in recent seasons.
Late in the 2022 campaign, he broke a bone in his big right toe and tore a ligament in the second toe, forcing him to miss the playoffs that year.
Then he spent the first half of 2023 trying to get his mechanics back on track after they had gotten out of whack, possibly from trying to compensate for the foot injury.
“It’s one of the reasons that [the medical staff] and I am on board with, you’re not playing through anything initially,” Boone said. “So if that means missing a day, so be it. We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll see.”
Coming off a healthy offseason, LeMahieu had the Yankees encouraged by what they were seeing early this spring. Boone was hoping to use the 35-year-old consistently as the leadoff hitter atop a lineup that was in need of revitalization, but for now, that progress has been halted in its tracks.
LeMahieu’s previous issues with the right foot — his pivot foot in his swing — largely sapped his production at the plate. He did not begin to look like himself again until the second half of last season.
“The thing is, I’m not going to have him playing through anything initially,” Boone said. “Because I feel like that’s where you start compensating and then you start putting other parts of the body and that foot even in jeopardy. I’ve been clear with DJ on that. So we’ll be treating it.
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“He’s doing significantly better than he was [Sunday] and the day before. So that’s all good. We’ll kind of re-evaluate it here probably going into the [Wednesday] night game or [Thursday] and see where we’re at.”
If LeMahieu is not ready to start the season on time, the Yankees will have to find a third baseman to take his place.
The first option might have been Oswald Peraza, but he is already injured with a shoulder strain. Oswaldo Cabrera is now the most likely internal candidate, though the Yankees may also need him to bounce around the diamond with his defensive versatility.
Jahmai Jones and non-roster infielder Kevin Smith have also been vying for a bench job while the Yankees could also look externally for help, especially as other clubs trim their rosters in the final week of camp.
“We’ll just see,” Boone said. “That’s a long way to go still. Everyone’s still in the mix in different ways. We’ll see, because [LeMahieu] very well could be there.”
LeMahieu has taken 27 at-bats this spring, but it remains to be seen when, or if, he will take another one before the regular season begins. He had been scheduled to be part of the Yankees’ contingent to play in Mexico City at the end of camp, though that is now unlikely.
