The struggling Jay Bruce was back in the Yankee lineup on Tuesday, but the team’s regular starter at first base is working his way back from injury.
Luke Voit had an encouraging visit with doctors on Monday after undergoing surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus, and the slugger is back to doing baseball activities, a welcomed sight for a team in need of more offense.
“That went really well,” manager Aaron Boone told reporters on a Zoom call before Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jays. “He was doing some light fielding drills today in the cage.”
Voit will continue with light fielding work for the rest of this week, but the hope is for the reigning home run leader to pick up a bat by next week.
“He’s able to do start throwing and do some real light fielding this week with the hopes that he’ll introduced hitting and hitting off the tee next starting week, so he’s progressed really well up to this point,” Boone said.
The Yankee offense has struggled out of the gate due to some of the team’s normal cornerstones slumping to start the season. DJ LeMahieu, largely immune to slumps for most of his Yankee tenure, is in that undesirable category, posting a .776 OPS in 47 plate appearances.
Of course, given his track record and the small sample size, Boone isn’t concerned.
“He’s still getting his hits, he’s still getting on base,” Boone said. “He’ll start to lock it in and when he does, the league will be in for it with a lot of multi-hit games and him hitting in some big spots for us.”
LeMahieu’s current strikeout rate of 14.7 percent would be his highest season total since 2015, but after putting up MVP caliber numbers in his first two years with the Yanks, there’s little reason for concern that LeMahieu won’t resume his typical production sooner than later.
“I don’t worry about it too much,” Boone said. “Probably leaving the zone a little more than he’s used to. But that even happens to him over the course of the season. It’s just a little bigger of a story when it’s the start of things.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
