Meanwhile, against the Orioles, Jonathan Loaisiga allowed a hit and a walk in three scoreless innings. Didn’t strike anyone out though. At this point, I don’t think today’s outing is enough to land him a spot in the Opening Day rotation. Luke Voit, Miguel Andujar, and Zack Zehner all went deep. The Kyles (Holder and Higashioka) each had a single and a double. Here are the box score and video highlights for this game, and here are the day’s notes from Tampa:
- Aaron Boone confirmed Aaron Hicks (back) will begin the season on the injured list. He received a second cortisone shot yesterday, which seems not great! “He could avoid a full (injured list) stay at the big league level because obviously we can backdate him … Hopefully this will knock it out once and for all, but it will slow him down by a couple of days,” Boone said. [Coley Harvey]
- Dellin Betances threw a 1-2-3 inning today but his velocity was still down in the 90-92 mph range. Gary Sanchez even went out to the mound to make sure he was feeling okay. Betances, who has always been a slow starter velocity-wise, said he feels good and is still building arm strength after getting a late start to camp following the birth of his first child. [James Wagner, Sweeny Murti]
- Estevan Florial (wrist) will see a specialist Tuesday and the Yankees will know more about his timetable then. “My understanding is he could potentially be in a cast, but the hand specialist may have him in something else. That’ll kind of unfold over the next 48 hours exactly how we attack it,” said Boone. Florial suffered a non-displaced fracture yesterday. [Randy Miller]
- Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery) arrived in camp today. He had his physical today and is not close to returning to the lineup. Ellsbury is hitting off a tee and playing catch at short distances. That’s about it. His rehab work will gradually increase in the coming weeks. Needless to say, he’s not a candidate to fill in for Hicks. [Bryan Hoch, Pete Caldera]
- Conor Foley has the day’s minor league camp lineups. Obligatory reminder: Those are only spring workout groups, not full season assignments. Just turned 20-year-old Saul Torres is not jumping to Triple-A after hitting .125/.172/.193 in rookie ball last season.
- And finally, Russell Wilson is gone. His two days in camp are over. Wilson shagged fly balls and took batting practice, and presumably mingled with the young players, which was the entire reason the Yankees acquired him in the first place. [Bryan Hoch]
The Yankees open the final full week of the Grapefruit League season with a road night game against the Braves tomorrow. The game won’t be televised. Last time the Yankees will play an untelevised game in 2019. Hooray for that. Masahiro Tanaka is Monday night’s scheduled starter.