TAMPA — Austin Wells has stepped into the batter’s field on a number of events for reside batting apply through the first week of camp.
He simply hasn’t swung the bat but.
The Yankees catcher, who did take swings within the indoor cage Sunday, mentioned the choice just isn’t associated to an damage and that he’s “just not ready yet.”
“I was hitting higher-speed stuff towards the end of this week [indoors], so just preparing for the games probably the week after they start,” Wells mentioned Sunday. “Just played late, so taking it a little slower.”
Wells is coming off a heavy catching workload final season, after taking on near full-time duties in July.
He made huge strides defensively but additionally emerged as a key bat through the summer time — which led to him changing into the cleanup hitter — earlier than he appeared to expire of gasoline in September and into the playoffs.
The AL Rookie of the 12 months finalist was hitting .259 with a .795 OPS and 12 dwelling runs in 94 video games getting into September earlier than ending the common season batting .111 with a .411 OPS and one dwelling run over his closing 21 video games.
He then hit .120 with a .460 OPS within the postseason.
“I definitely wasn’t happy with how it ended for me,” Wells mentioned. “But I don’t know any better to say that it was a fatigue thing or not. I’m gonna go with no. I’m just gonna go with it was part of the year. But definitely feeling good 1739771224 and ready to roll.”
Wells was additionally hit by a pitch on the fitting wrist/hand on Sept. 2, although he wasn’t positive if that had something to do together with his decline.
Jake Cousins is unlikely to begin the season on time attributable to a forearm pressure, however the reliever — who will probably be three weeks right into a deliberate three-to-four week shutdown on Monday — believes he’s making good progress in his restoration.
“We don’t want this to be something that I deal with all season, so we want to make sure it’s gone,” Cousins mentioned. “If we end up missing a couple weeks and I’m healthy for the rest of the season — the whole goal is to be healthy.”
Cousins was feeling elevated soreness in days after bullpen periods through the offseason, which led to him getting imaging.
However he mentioned the UCL “looked great” within the MRI.
Roger Clemens will probably be among the many visitor instructors at Yankees camp this spring for the primary time, as SNY first reported, with the seven-time Cy Younger winner anticipated on Friday.
Bench coach Brad Ausmus pulled a hamstring “pretty bad” in a pickup basketball sport on Saturday, in keeping with supervisor Aaron Boone.
“Obviously, I advised him not to do that, understandably,” quipped Boone, who infamously tore his ACL whereas enjoying basketball forward of the 2004 season. “But he wanted to take his 55-year-old act out there anyway.”
