DJ LeMahieu finally is over his right foot injury. His non-displaced fracture has healed. He’s back playing rehab games, and this time there have been no setbacks.
He’s feeling ready to finally start his season.
Soon.
Beginning Tuesday night, LeMahieu was scheduled to play four more rehab games — all of them this week in Brooklyn with the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades — then rejoin the Yankees’ next week on the second leg of their three-city West Coast trip.
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On the heels of LeMahieu playing rehab games with Double-A Somerset last Friday and Sunday, he’ll play with Hudson Valley on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
LeMahieu then is scheduled to fly to Southern California on Sunday night or during the Yankees’ off day on Monday and presumably start at third base next Tuesday night in a series opener in Anaheim, Calif., against the Los Angeles Angels.
By this weekend, LeMahieu will have accumulated enough plate appearances and played enough innings to be Major League ready, his manager believes.
“He’s already had a couple (games) and he’s already had a couple days of live at-bats down in Tampa last week,” manager Aaron Boone said in his Tuesday pre-game news conference. “So if you add those at-bats, we’re looking at probably 30-plus at-bats, probably 20-25 in these rehab games.”
LeMahieu was injured in a March 16 spring training game when he fouled a pitch off his right foot.
Before last weekend, LeMahieu’s only game since spring training was his one inning and one at-bat (a strikeout) with Somerset at Reading on April 23. More discomfort that night led to another brief shutdown that will end up delaying the two-time batting champion’s return by another month.
LeMahieu was 2-for-3 with three walks in his two Double-A rehab games last weekend.
The quality of pitching next week will be three levels higher than High-A ball for LeMahieu, but Boone says the rehab games are more geared toward getting his body used to playing again.
“More for DJ, it’s about just seeing pitches, building up the volume of playing and being out there for a couple hours,” Boone said “That’s the biggest thing. His level of experience, especially as a hitter, I just want him to get to see pitches.
“There’s a lot of tools available for these guys now that help replicate things a little better than we ever could certainly, but more to me it’s about building and physically.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
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