Tampa – DJ lemahieu is hurt again – this time after just one spring training game.
The 36-year-old, who has frequently relied on foot and other lower body injuries for the past three years, suffered a left calf injury after just two at-bats in his Grapefruitreeg debut with the Astros at Stein Brenner Field on Saturday.
Aaron Boone said Lemahieu felt it in his second at-bat of the 9-3 victory when Lemahieu came out.
The Yankees didn't play him in the game throughout the first week of their spring training schedule, and started him as DH on Saturday, in an attempt to make him healthy.
He jumped out second after hitting in his first bat.
Boone said he plans to remove lemahieu after his second batting session, but that wasn't enough to prevent another injury.
“That's not ideal, [with] It's obvious he had to deal with it,” Boone said. “We see what we have there, we see how important it is.”
Less than two weeks later, dealing with concerns about his previous injuries, Lemahieu said “it's easy to feel better in January.”
As he knows well, it has proven difficult to reach in one piece at the end of March.
During a meeting with reporters early in the spring, Lemahieu added that he “undetectedly lost a lot of sleep” in the two-year and $30 million deals for a six-year, $90 million deal he signed before the 2021 season.
“It's difficult for a team to be a guy they can't rely on from time to time,” added Lemahieu.
A year ago, in the midst of a solid spring, when the Yankees were certain they could regain the form they had shown in their first two seasons in the Bronx, Lemahieu suffered a non-displaced fracture that helped them limit 67 games in the worst season of their career.
I also had toes and toes and toes ligaments with different toes that derailed in 2022 in '23.
Given that history, Boone said, “Those soft tissues have appeared to him. I'm at least a little worried.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. has established himself in 2 bases, leaving Oswald Cabrera and Oswald Peraza, and is competing for the third job alongside Lemahieu.
Cabrera, who turned 26 on Saturday, shows his ability and willingness to play several different positions, but has not consistently hit the major league level, with the 24-year-old Peraza's career stagnating, with only 74 games in the majors.
And Lemahieu's plans to find a fountain for young people took another hit on Saturday, finishing the season when he finished with a career-low OPS .527.
His mobility has declined, and expectations that his bat speed and his attacks would be closer to those of 2019 or closer to COVID-Shorted 2020 have long been gone.
However, high quality bats elsewhere in the lineup will result in less pressure on the lemahieu.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that for the Yankees to get anything more from Lumahi, he must be able to stay on the field, and he can no longer do it.
And it leaves the Yankees with an even bigger question mark on 3 base.
