What a change of events for Juan Soto.
The Yankees slugger was initially out of Sunday's lineup for the second straight day after injuring his right hand sliding into home plate on Friday night. But minutes before the first pitch the Yankees reposted a new lineup with Soto playing and batting second.
Per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, Soto said prior to the game he felt pain and weakness swinging in batting practice on Saturday and while he felt better on Sunday, he may still need an MRI or CT scan. He did, however, go through his pregame routine in an attempt to see if he could play and must have done some lobbying because Yankees manager Aaron Boone sounded as if he wanted to take every precaution with Soto.
“The one thing I don’t want him doing is compromising his swing,” Boone told reporters. “If it’s something where he’s just feeling some soreness, we’ll certainly wait on that. We know how important he is to our lineup.”
Soto received X-rays on his hand Saturday, which were negative.
It is the second injury scare the Yankees have had with Soto this season – who also missed three games against the Dodgers earlier in June due to forearm tightness.
The injury occurred in the fourth inning of Friday’s 16-5 win over Toronto when Soto slid into home plate and appeared to hurt his hand while avoiding the tag.
He stayed in the game and even hit a 396-foot home run just two innings later.
Soto is having an MVP-type season this year, hitting a slash line of .302/.434/.570 with 20 home runs, 60 RBI and a 1.005 OPS.