DUNEDIN, Fla.— Luke Voit is progressing well from surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his left knee and is doing some “light fielding,” according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
Voit could advance to hitting off a tee next week, and the Yankees hope he can return in early May.
Because Jay Bruce has had success through his career against Toronto starter Hyun Jin Ryu, he was in the lineup. Bruce entered in an 0-for-14 skid, but ended that with a double.
“He looked good,’’ Boone said of Bruce’s at-bats. Bruce went 1-for-3 in the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays.
Giancarlo Stanton snapped an 0-for-16 streak with a single and Boone pointed to his main issue as hitting the ball on the ground instead of in the air.
The stats back that up, as many of Stanton’s advanced numbers are similar to where they’ve been throughout his career, but his ground ball rate has increased.
“It’s getting in that position to get off his best swing and when he does, getting it airborne or on a line,’’ Boone said. “With Giancarlo, that’s always simmering [and] always right there. It’s probably a little fine-tuning with timing and when he does get a pitch to do damage [doing it]- even though even when he puts it on the ground, it’s so hard, sometimes it finds a hole.”
DJ LeMahieu (2-for-3) is another Yankee hitting more ground balls than he’s accustomed to and Boone said he’s “probably leaving the zone more than he’s used to.”
But Boone noted “he’s still getting hits and getting on base. He’ll start to lock it in and when he does, the league will be in for it.”