The Yankees’ starting lineup for their second game against the Dodgers this weekend didn’t include Juan Soto again, with manager Aaron Boone saying that they’re “leaning toward giving it a couple days” before the outfielder returns.
Soto, who exited Thursday’s win against the Twins with left forearm soreness, didn’t play Friday after undergoing tests that revealed elbow inflammation — and, perhaps more importantly, didn’t reveal anything else — and led to his feeling “relief,” as he described it after the Yankees’ extra-innings loss to open the series against Los Angeles.
When asked if a stint on the injured list remained a possibility if Soto didn’t show improvement, Boone said, “I guess,” but added that he doesn’t anticipate that scenario materializing.
“When he’s ready, he’s ready,” Boone said Saturday before the Yankees and Dodgers met at Yankee Stadium.
Soto hadn’t participated in any baseball activities Saturday when Boone spoke with reporters three hours before first pitch, but he didn’t know if that would change.
Boone said he asked Soto — who was receiving treatment — earlier in the afternoon how he was feeling, and the outfielder responded that he was good.
So for the second consecutive night, the Yankees used Trent Grisham in center field and shifted Aaron Judge to right with Alex Verdugo in left field.
Soto’s absence still left a glaring absence in the Yankees’ lineup, though, with the 25-year-old hitting .318 — the second-best average in the American League behind the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. (.320) entering Saturday’s games — and launching 17 homers while slotted ahead of Judge in the batting order.
Soto hasn’t missed consecutive games since back tightness sidelined him for three in a row in August 2022.
He didn’t sit out a single Padres game last year.
He even played through the forearm soreness for about a week-and-a-half or two weeks this year, he revealed earlier in the week, and added that it hadn’t prevented him from doing anything when playing.
That doesn’t mean his current forearm inflammation has reached a concerning or an alarming status.
But, as Soto’s latest absence captured, the opposite of that doesn’t necessarily correlate to an instant return, either.
“I think he sees the big picture in all this, too,” Boone said. “And as much as this environment, this series, I mean I’m sure there’s part of it that’s killing him not being in it.
“But I think he’s also like, ‘I also know I want to get this inflammation out of here and we can roll.’ ”
