Jon Berti won’t be available to the Yankees any time soon.
The infielder was diagnosed with a “high-grade” calf strain, manager Aaron Boone said Sunday morning, after getting injured running out of the box in the ninth inning Friday night at Petco Park.
Berti and the Yankees were still consulting with doctors in order to pin down a real timeline for how long he will be out after undergoing an MRI on Saturday.
“But it’s going to be a while,” Boone said before the Yankees’ 5-2 loss to the Padres.
Yankees infielder Jon Berti was injured running out of the box on Friday
Berti, who had crutches and a walking boot at his locker Sunday morning, was just starting to produce more consistently after returning from a groin strain earlier this season.
He and Oswaldo Cabrera had combined to form a solid third-base tandem while DJ LeMahieu was sidelined, and the Yankees expected him to serve as a valuable bench piece once they were whole.
Instead, he will be out for the foreseeable future, though the Yankees are set to get LeMahieu back on Tuesday when they start a series against the Angels in Anaheim.
Jon Berti will be out “a while” with a calf injury
The veteran played his sixth and likely final rehab game on Sunday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Starting his first game at first base after playing the rest at third base, LeMahieu played six innings in the second half of a back-to-back.
LeMahieu was expected to fly to California on Sunday night to join the Yankees.
His return should make an already deep lineup even deeper, with the right-handed bat likely to slot into the seven- or eight-hole.
Ian Hamilton had been on track to be activated off the COVID IL on Sunday, but the Yankees decided to push that back until Tuesday.
“He’s doing well,” Boone said. “Just want to make sure he’s all the way back. With the off day [Monday], better served waiting another day.”
After Sunday’s game, the Yankees optioned Yoendrys Gomez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the likely move for Hamilton to return on Tuesday.
Juan Soto’s extended conversation with home plate umpire Bill Miller in the third inning of Saturday’s game was not about the strike zone, but about the timeout he had used during the at-bat.
Miller wanted to speed up the timeout, according to Boone, who said there has been a mandate from the league to not allow batter timeouts to last too long.
“So he was kind of enforcing that and making Juan speed up, which I didn’t think Juan was taking too much time,” Boone said.
The Yankees on Sunday received RHP Matt Sauer as a Rule 5 draft return from the Royals and assigned him to Triple-A.
Sauer, who was the second-overall pick in December’s Rule 5 draft, had posted a 7.71 ERA in 14 games for the Royals before being designated for assignment.