SEATTLE -- DJ LeMahieu is on the way.
“He’s en route now,” were the exact words manager Aaron Boone used, speaking ahead of the Yankees’ series opener against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Monday.
Boone added that the current plan is for LeMahieu to be activated and in uniform Tuesday, before making his first start of the season in the day game to end the series Wednesday.
When LeMahieu does take the field, it’ll be the end of a long road back, itself the latest chapter in his recent struggles with injuries.
“DJ LeMahieu could fall out of bed and hit,” Boone said. “I think the biggest thing that’s tripped him up over the years is the nagging, different injuries that have popped up and slowed him.”
The 36-year-old didn’t make his debut last season until May 28 after breaking his foot on a foul ball toward the end of Spring Training. He then had his year end a month early thanks to a right hip impingement. He took an extended break from hitting in the offseason in hopes of coming back stronger this year but suffered another injury in Spring Training. A tweak in his left calf on March 1 ended his spring after just one game.
LeMahieu began a rehab assignment on April 22, and has played nine games since between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In the middle of that run, he received a cortisone shot in his hip that Boone called “preemptive.”
“I feel like he’s just wanted to make sure he gets this right,” Boone said. “That’s what started with the injection with the hip -- knowing that he feels like he’s got to nail this. I think he’s been really diligent and focused in all of that.”
The infielder had a slash line of .444/.500/.593 in his rehab assignment with one home run. In his three games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he went 5-for-11 with a walk.
“The stuff I’ve been watching has been really good,” Boone said. “So good at using the whole field. I feel like he’s really been good at that. It’s still the buildup, a veteran player wanting to check boxes and do certain things within a game, and I feel like he’s done a good job of that. I’m looking forward to seeing him get here with us.”
LeMahieu led MLB with a .364 batting average and topped the AL with a 178 OPS+ in the shortened 2020 season. He capped it by signing a six-year, $90 million contract -- one that’s set to end after next season. LeMahieu hasn’t had a fully healthy season since, though he did win his fourth Gold Glove Award in ’22.
In 67 games last season, LeMahieu hit .204, and had his first season with negative bWAR since his rookie campaign with the Cubs.
LeMahieu’s return could give the Yankees an answer at second base, which has been more up in the air since Jazz Chisholm Jr. landed on the injured list with a right oblique strain on May 2 (retroactive to April 30). Jorbit Vivas has started seven games at second since, with Pablo Reyes starting the other three. In that timeframe, Yankees second basemen -- Vivas, Oswald Peraza and Reyes -- are hitting a combined .154.
That gives LeMahieu, who has played predominantly at the corner infield spots the past two seasons, a chance to get back to the spot he has played 1,137 games at over the course of his 14-year career, though he could also feature more in a platoon with Oswaldo Cabrera at third.
“As long as he’s healthy,” Boone said, "I won’t be surprised with anything he brings to the table.”