Yankees' Aaron Judge takes his cuts — indoors with a tee
Yankees' OF Aaron Judge making a play in a fly ball during drills at spring training in Tampa, FL on Wednesday Feb. 19, 2020. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Judge is closing in on being caught up with his teammates.
The rightfielder, who hadn’t hit in more than two weeks because of soreness in his right shoulder – a time period that included the first three days of full-squad workouts – finally swung a bat on Friday, hitting off a tee indoors.
“He kind of gave me, across the room, a smile and thumbs up,” Aaron Boone said. “So everything’s moving there, I think, the way it should. Another good day for him.”
Boone indicated Judge should be ready to take full batting practice in the next few days. He said he did not yet have a date for when Judge will make his exhibition debut, though he already has been ruled out for Saturday's opener against the Blue Jays at Steinbrenner Field and for Sunday’s game in Port Charlotte against the Rays.
“We’ll kind of see how we ramp up his volume,” Boone said of when Judge will be deemed game-ready. “We won’t be in a rush to put him in a game just because of where we are in the calendar. But I think he’s pretty much good to go.”
Rotation set first time through
Boone disclosed his rotation for the first handful of exhibition games. J.A. Happ will start Saturday and will be followed by Jonathan Loaisiga on Sunday. Gerrit Cole will pitch Monday at home against the Pirates, followed by Luis Cessa on Tuesday in Dunedin against Toronto and Masahiro Tanaka on Wednesday at home against the Nationals.
Bonding time
As has become a tradition over the years, the Yankees were off the field early Friday — the day before the opener — for the club’s annual team bonding activity.
This year’s?
“Ping pong, March Madness-style,” Boone said. “So we’ve got 64 slots. Should be a lot of fun. Should be a lot of trash-talking going on. We’ll see how it goes.”
Infield prospect Kyle Holder took home the title.
