The Yankee offense has showed signs of coming out of it collective funk of late, and it could be getting one of its biggest power threats back soon.
Luke Voit, last year’s home run leader, faced live pitching on Thursday, the first time since having left knee surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus that he suffered during spring training. He is also scheduled to do some more running on Friday.
“He’s doing well,” Aaron Boone told reporters on Thursday. “He’s facing live at-bats today for the first time.”
Voit had knee troubles in spring that he was playing through, and said he was feeling better before electing to have the surgery rather than taking cortizone shots and playing through the injury. He played through a core injury down the stretch in 2019 and a foot injury through most of the 2020 season.
The foot problems didn’t sap Voit of any power last year, as he smacked a league-leading 22 home runs after hitting 21 in 118 games in 2019. He has proven his late 2018 surge was no fluke, as he holds a career .915 OPS with the Yankees over 213 games.
First base was an issue for the Yanks early in the season, as veteran Jay Bruce struggled offensively and defensively before retiring. Mike Ford and DJ LeMahieu are sharing reps at first until Voit returns.
The minor league season begins next week, giving Voit a chance to get in live games before returning to the Yankees, and Boone said Voit will get a good chunk of games in before being brought back up.
“I think he needs to play some games, and not just a handful of games,” Boone said. “I think it’s important not just to regularly see some live pitching…but also just from the endurance standpoint, coming off of a knee clean-up, to make sure he’s able to play nine innings, bounce back and play back-to-back…so there will be a bit of a build-up there.”
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