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ST. LOUIS — Who plays right field again first, Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge?
The answer, at least in the short-term, may be neither.
Stanton remained out of the Yankees lineup Sunday for a third straight game, with his lower-body soreness still lingering from playing three straight games in right field earlier in the week and Judge still limited to DH duties as he works back from a right flexor strain.
“Just don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday morning at Busch Stadium. “Especially going into an off day [Monday], it’s a big outfield here and I feel like [Stanton] is in a good spot to be a real weapon if we need something off the bench today too.”
Neither Stanton nor Boone were willing to commit to him returning to the outfield in Tampa on Tuesday, with the Yankees playing at George M. Steinbrenner Field, which has the same dimensions at Yankee Stadium.
“We’ll see where we’re at,” Stanton said.
The veteran slugger, who despises talking about injuries, declined to say whether there was a specific body part bothering him or if it was just general soreness, which is how Boone has described it. The manager likened it to players having to build themselves up in spring training.
“I’m available to pinch-hit, so I’m not really going to get into all that,” Stanton said. “We’re in-season. We got to make something work. There’s no, ‘like spring training, like whatever.’ We’re able to knock out some wins and I’m available [Saturday] and today.”
Boone brushed off the idea of this turning into an injured list situation for Stanton.
“No, no, no,” Boone said. “I don’t see that at all.”
Instead, the waiting game continues for Judge to be ready to play the field. He played catch again on Sunday morning and has been out to 150 feet. The next and possibly last step would be throwing to bases, but Boone offered no timeline for when that might happen.
“I’m going to leave that to trainers and Judgey,” Boone said. “Basically I’m waiting on the trainers to say, ‘All right, we’re ready to go with it.’ I’ll listen to that.
“I think [the elbow] continues to improve each time.”
