NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees slugger Juan Soto has elbow inflammation and was not in the starting lineup for the first time this season when New York opened a high-profile series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he doesn’t expect Soto will go on the injured list. Soto had imaging of his forearm and elbow that did not show any ligament damage. He will take medication and did not require an injection.
“In the grand scheme of things, we got some good news,” Boone said. “There might have been some anxious moments in there.”
Soto was removed from Thursday night’s 8-5 win over Minnesota after five innings because of left forearm discomfort. Soto said after the game the forearm of his throwing arm had been bothering him for about 1 1/2 or two weeks.
A 25-year-old three-time All-Star, Soto had started all 64 games in his first season with New York after being acquired from San Diego in December.
“Kind of just been grinding through it,” he said Thursday night. “It’s kind of funny. It doesn’t hurt when I throw, or hitting, it’s more like soreness that I feel any kind of move that I make with my arm. But it definitely doesn’t stop me from anything baseball-wise.”
Soto is batting .318 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs, helping the Yankees to a major league-leading 45-19 record.
“We all decided to not start getting work again after an hour, sitting down here, start getting hot again, warming it up,” Soto said. “We didn’t want to risk anything like that, so we just decided to stop.”
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
