ARLINGTON, Texas — Luis Severino is finally ready to get back into game action.
The Yankees right-hander, who has been sidelined by a strained lat since the final week of spring training, will begin a rehab assignment on Wednesday or Thursday with Single-A Tampa, manager Aaron Boone said Sunday.
Severino had been slowly building back up with bullpens and three live batting practice sessions, the most recent one coming on Friday when he threw 40 pitches across three simulated innings.
Boone had said on Friday that Severino would “probably” throw another live session, but instead, he is feeling strong enough to begin a rehab assignment.
“Sevy’s doing well,” Boone said before the series finale against the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
It remains to be seen how many rehab starts Severino will need as he builds up his pitch count, but it puts his potential return around mid-to-late May if everything goes well.
Severino would be in line to replace Jhony Brito or Clarke Schmidt in the rotation, but the Yankees have a few weeks to go before they have to make that decision, assuming all of their starters remain healthy.
Aaron Judge (mild hip strain) came in Sunday “feeling a little bit better” again, Boone said, but he was unlikely to do any baseball activities.
The Yankees are expected to decide by Monday whether Judge needs a stint on the injured list.
If he is able to avoid it, the best-case scenario would have him returning to play on Tuesday or Wednesday at Yankee Stadium against the Guardians.
Franchy Cordero arrived back in the clubhouse on Sunday morning as part of the taxi squad as the Yankees awaited the results of Jake Bauers’ MRI.
Bauers, who crashed into the left-field wall on Saturday night to make a spectacular catch that knocked him out of the game, still had a bit of a limp while wearing a sleeve on his right knee.
“There’s still swelling and it’s stiff, but the pain is down,” Bauers said. “I feel like I’m walking pretty good. I’m walking pain-free. The only thing that’s keeping my range of motion down is the swelling. I’m sure today we’ll try to get all of that out of there.”