SEATTLE — Carlos Rodón was scheduled to begin a rehab assignment this weekend, but a tight hamstring has threatened to delay that next step.
The Yankees left-hander experienced right hamstring tightness on Monday after doing his running, manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday, and the club is waiting to see whether it will affect his ramp-up toward the big leagues.
Rodón had thrown 50 pitches in a live batting practice on Sunday in Tampa, clearing him to make his next outing in a game setting — likely with Double-A Somerset on Friday or Saturday — as he comes back from October surgery to shave down a bone spur and remove loose bodies from his left elbow.
“I don’t know if it’s going to slow him at all, but it could be something in the days [ahead],” Boone said at T-Mobile Park before facing the Mariners. “We’ll see what we have there. … He was scheduled in a few days for whatever in Somerset. We’ll see if that gets delayed at all.”
“Just felt some tightness when he came in after. I don’t think it’s that big a deal, hopefully it’s not.”
The Yankees are not in a position to be rushing Rodón back, so it would not be surprising to see them take a cautious approach.
They are currently operating with four starters because of multiple off days in the first two weeks of the season, with Luis Gil expected to be called up to become the fifth starter around April 10.
Rodón had been expected back before the end of April if everything went smoothly, but now it remains to be seen whether that timeline will be pushed back.
Boone expects there will be “plenty” of times this season when Camilo Doval finishes one inning and comes back out to pitch the next. But the first week of the season is not yet that time.
Doval entered in a big spot in the seventh inning Monday night, with the go-ahead run on third base, two outs and Julio Rodriguez at the plate. He needed just two pitches to get Rodriguez to ground out and escape the jam, but that ended up being all he would throw in an abbreviated outing, since Boone did not want to send him back out for the eighth.
“I’m sure eventually he’ll have plenty of two-ups, but not something I want to do a lot with him necessarily, and probably not necessarily early in the year with him either,” Boone said.
Instead, Boone called on Paul Blackburn, who tossed a scoreless eighth before giving up a walk-off single to Cal Raleigh in the ninth.
J.C. Escarra got his first start of the season Tuesday, catching Max Fried and batting seventh.
