Yankees to make decision on Luke Voit's season debut after rehab assignment

Luke Voit’s season debut date draws closer still.

And, Aaron Boone indicated Tuesday, that could come within the next 10 days or so.

The Yankees announced Tuesday afternoon that the first baseman, who started the season on the IL after undergoing surgery in late March to repair a partial meniscus tear in his left knee, was to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Voit, as the DH, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk as the RailRiders lost their season opener, 5-2, at the Syracuse Mets on Tuesday night.

"He’ll probably [play] five or six innings in the field tomorrow," Boone said before his team started a three-game series against the Astros at the Stadium.

Boone, in spelling out the rest of Voit’s week, said the first baseman would be off Thursday, play seven innings Friday, have another DH day Saturday and play nine innings Sunday.

"Over the next seven, eight days he’s probably going to play five or six games and hopefully get built up," Boone said. "And then, hopefully, [we’ll] be in a position to make a decision."

Boone said, without any setbacks, Voit, who hit an MLB-leading 22 homers during last year’s 60-game COVID-19 shortened season, could be cleared to rejoin the Yankees "at some point" during the upcoming three-city trip that begins next Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla. against the Rays.

Monty displeased

Jordan Montgomery’s season to this point hasn’t been anything close to a disaster. But it has not mirrored his spring training, when Montgomery was among the most impressive Yankees to take the mound, and the 28-year-old lefthander, who brings a 1-1, 4.39 mark into Wednesday night’s start, sounded fed up.

"I’m just kind of sick of not being as good as I know I should be out there," Montgomery said Tuesday. "The spring I had, I was feeling really good, and I just know I can be better."

Montgomery has struggled in the first inning of several of his outings, especially the last two. He allowed three runs April 23 at Cleveland before settling down, then allowed a first-inning run — before, again, settling down — last Thursday at Baltimore.

After the start against the Orioles, Montgomery said his issues in the first inning can be traced to "aiming" the ball and not simply throwing.

He said on Tuesday he’s talked this week with two veterans, Gerrit Cole and Corey Kluber, regarding their pre-game bullpen sessions and their respective approaches.

"[They] helped me with that, what they do," Montgomery said. "Both of them wrote theirs out, told me what they like, why they do it. And we kind of just brainstormed [a plan] for me. They asked me what I liked, what I wanted, what I was going for. It’s just something I’ve never been shown how to do. I’ve never had a set bullpen routine . . . So I really liked that and the fact they were there to help me."

Rotation for weekend

Boone said Jameson Taillon will start Friday night at the Stadium to open the series with the Nationals, followed by Kluber on Saturday and Domingo German on Sunday.