Yankees Aaron Boone discusses injuries to Harrison Bader, Anthony Rizzo

Harrison Bader could be headed for the injured list and Anthony Rizzo was not in the Yankees lineup on Tuesday. 

That was the word from Yankees manager Aaron Boone during his weekly appearance on the Talkin’ Yanks podcast. While New York has been getting healthier, both Rizzo and Bader suffered issues over the weekend with the San Diego Padres visiting the Bronx. 

Rizzo hurt his neck while trying to apply a pick-off tag on Fernando Tatis Jr. in the sixth inning of Sunday’s win over San Diego. Bader suffered a hamstring injury when he was running down the first base line in the third inning of Monday’s game against the Seattle Mariners. 

“Morning report he’s doing better,” Boone said about Rizzo. “So we’ll see where he’s at and I know he made some improvements during the game with all the treatments he got yesterday. Hopefully just one more day or he can be a real option tonight. We’ll see as the day unfolds with him. But he is not in there tonight.” 

The Yankees have one more game against the Mariners after Tuesday night and then head to Texas to take on the Rangers. The situation with Bader seemed a bit more serious with Boone floating the idea of a possible IL stint. 

Any time without Bader would be a blow for te Yankees, who have gone 18-8 since he returned to the field from an oblique injury that occurred in spring training. 

“He’s going to get an MRI hopefully at some point today, but we’re still waiting to hear about from the doctor on scheduling that. He’s got a little spot in there. It’s an isolated spot, so we’ll see,” Boone said.  “It’s his right hamstring, so I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s day-to-day or it could be a short IL stint. They don’t seem to think it’s real bad, but obviously being a speed guy and everything it could be something that does cost him some days.”

Boone added that the Yankees would piece together who would play center field depending on the matchup. Greg Allen, Aaron Judge and Isiah Kiner-Falefa could all get time in that spot if needed. 

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in what IKF has become now in the outfield,” Boone said. “Whether we put him in left or center feel really good about that. Allen is a really good defender, so you know you’re gonna get that and we know Aaron is capable of sliding over. 

“We’ll just see. Hoping that even if it is an IL stint, hoping it’s short one and probably looks that way and even better than that hopefully it’s a day-to-day thing.”