Ahead of Friday night’s series opener against the AL East division leading Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees manager Aaron Boone fielded questions from the press on a variety of hot topics.
Gerrit Cole’s return
Boone began his news conference talking about Gerrit Cole, who will return to the mound for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays for the first time in 569 days.
“We’re all realy excited to get our ace back…he’s ready to perform at a high level…get outs at a high rate.”
The logjam at shortstop
With the reinstatement of Jose Caballero to the starting lineup tonight, Boone said he is “excited to get [Caballero] back in there at shortstop today to hopefully provide that spark.”
He then broke down his strategy in terms of managing both surging shortstops – the aforementioned Caballero and Anthony Volpe – at his disposal moving forward.
“I’ve talked to both guys…both guys are going to play…[Caballero’s] versatility comes into play.”
“These things have a way of working themselves out. We have two players that we feel can play vital roles in us winning games.” However, Boone did acknowledge “it’s not going to be the perfect scenario every single day.”
“On the days [Volpe] is not playing, I’ll have him working a little bit at second base… he has played some second base in the past, at Spring Training.”
Lineup decisions for Bellinger, Judge, and Jones
Looking past the three-game home stand in Tampa Bay, Boone also expressed a desire to reduce the workload of star outfielders Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge.
“We’ve got some lefties coming up in Kansas City… I want to give Bellinger a DH day at some point, I want to give Judge a day off at some point.”
On Judge’s recent struggles at the plate, Boone dismissed any concerns for the Yankees captain. He stated that during these slumps, he is always impressed by Judge’s “emotional consistency…it’s a grind, even for the great ones…he’s as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Boone also reflected on the team’s decision to send Spencer Jones back down to Triple-A this morning, explaining that “it was a really tough decision… it was a good experience for [Jones], even though he didn’t get a lot of results, I feel like he held is own really well… was having some good at-bats.”
Rehab updates for Dominguez and Stanton
Finally, the news conference ended with some brief updates from the manager on the the rehab status of Jasson Dominguez and Giancarlo Stanton.
Boone expects to see Dominguez back in the fold “by the time we’re at the back end of the [upcoming road trip, meaning in Sacramento against the Athletics] or at home [starting Tuesday June 2 against Cleveland]… that’s the hope, and that’s how he’s trending.”
Meanwhile, in regard to the status of injured everyday DH Giancarlo Stanton, Boone simply stated that “[Stanton] is getting an exam again early next week…we’ll go from there.”
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