DJ LeMahieu looks healthy in spring training debut for Yankees
The Yankees’ DJ LaMahieu waits for the start of the fourth inning of a spring training game against the Nationals at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. – DJ LeMahieu didn’t need real game action to tell him the toe was fine.
But, no pun intended, it didn’t hurt.
LeMahieu was hampered much of last season – including much of the season’s second half – by a right toe injury.
It impacted the infielder at the plate, where LeMahieu is a two-time batting champion, and in the field, where he’s won four Gold Gloves.
The 34-year-old came into this camp saying he felt 100% and didn’t feel limited at all during rounds of batting practice, workouts in the field and in simulated games.
And LeMahieu again looked like a healthy player Wednesday in his first spring training game, starting at second base and going 1-for-2 from the leadoff spot in a 4-2 victory over the Nationals.
“Awesome to be back out there. I feel really good. Feel great out there,” LeMahieu said. “I wasn’t too concerned about playing in a spring training game. [I was] feeling good. I expected it to stay that way.”
The third was the most eventful of LeMahieu’s five inning-afternoon. In the top half, LeMahieu ranged toward the second base bag on Alex Call's sharp grounder up the middle, making a backhanded stop before flipping to shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the force out. In the bottom half of the inning, LeMahieu roped a full-count slider off the wall in left against righthander Jordan Weems.
“I’m really comfortable where he’s at physically,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s been ready for a few weeks now. I’m excited about the winters he’s had and how he sort of got over the hump.”
LeMahieu never was able to do that in the latter part of 2022. The utility man was on pace for another standout season, hitting .292 with a .394 on-base percentage as late as Aug. 2. But his toe trouble soon began to take hold and LeMahieu ended the season hitting .261 with 12 homers and a .734 OPS. Despite multiple cortisone shots and attempts at strategic rest down the stretch, LeMahieu was not on the postseason roster for either the American League Division Series victory over Cleveland or the ALCS loss to Houston.
Asked Wednesday how much of an impact the toe had on him last season, LeMahieu shrugged and said: “Enough that I couldn’t play in the playoffs.”
Speaking about it earlier in spring training, LeMahieu, who did not require offseason surgery, said: “When you’re banged up, don’t feel like yourself, it's frustrating.”
With missing postseason games by far the biggest source of that frustration.
“That's the worst feeling,” LeMahieu said. “[It] just kind of gives you motivation to do everything I can to stay on the field and be myself.”
Gerrit Cole, scheduled to make his spring training debut Friday night against the Tigers, said there was no way to quantify what having a healthy LeMahieu for a full season would mean for the Yankees and the impact of him being decidedly unhealthy down the stretch in 2022.
“He’s one of the greatest hitters in the sport,” Cole said. “He’s super experienced in the field at all different positions. There’s not a lot of situations he hasn’t seen. He can do so many different things in the lineup in terms of linking a couple of guys together or finishing off rallies or getting rallies started. [We were] just missing a great player.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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