rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
CHICAGO — The Yankees are not far away from getting one of their trade deadline additions back in the fold.
Austin Slater began a rehab assignment Friday night with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 2-for-3 across five innings in left field as he comes back from a hamstring strain that he suffered Aug. 4.
The outfielder is expected to play again Sunday and likely get a third game under his belt Tuesday before the Yankees consider activating him.
“We’ll see over the next few days what makes the most sense,” manager Aaron Boone said Friday at Rate Field before a 10-2 win over the White Sox.
The Yankees acquired Slater for his ability to hit left-handed pitchers, against whom he has a .814 OPS this season and .795 for his career.
With rosters expanding to 28 on Monday, the Yankees will not have to send out any of their current players to make room for Slater’s return.
But since it does not sound like the Yankees will be ready to activate him Tuesday when they open a series against the Astros, they could call up catcher J.C. Escarra in the interim to give them extra flexibility on the bench for days when both Ben Rice and Austin Wells are in the lineup.
Some fans have been clamoring for Spencer Jones to be one of the Yankees’ Sept. 1 call-ups, but that will not happen without a clear lane for him to play, which does not currently exist.
As it is, teams only get one extra position player and one extra pitcher, compared to the old days of unlimited September call-ups as long as players were on the 40-man roster.
“I think it’s probably the right thing, just from a competition standpoint,” Boone said. “It’s a very different game, the way it used to be. One team might be playing with 33, the other team might be playing with 27. From a competition standpoint, that’s probably not the right way to go. So as much as I’d love to have a couple more guys up here, personally and from a team standpoint, I think it’s the right thing.”
Once again, Aaron Judge played catch and threw to second base and a cutoff man before Friday’s game, continuing to go through his progression from a flexor strain without any clear date for when he might play right field again.
In the meantime, Giancarlo Stanton started a second straight game in right field, though he is not expected to play the field in all four games here.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. stole his 25th base of the season Friday, making him the sixth Yankee to have a 25-homer, 25-steal season, joining Bobby Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson.
Chisholm is 15-for-15 in steals over his past 27 games after going 0-for-2 in 39 games from June 11-July 29. The difference, he said, is being healthy after he played through a groin issue that he sustained in a June 11 game in Kansas City.
“Finally got my legs back after all the stuff during the middle of the season,” he said. “Now I feel good enough to run every time I get out there.”
