Juan Soto was held out of the Yankees lineup for a third straight game Sunday, but manager Aaron Boone gave an optimistic outlook regarding his near-term future.

Boone said “the hope” is that Soto is back in right field on Monday in Kansas City.

Soto went through some of his normal pregame routine before Sunday’s 6-4 victory in the series finale against the Dodgers in The Bronx, doing more each day.

The results Soto and the team got from the testing done after he was removed following Thursday’s lengthy rain delay due to left forearm discomfort has been encouraging and Boone said whenever Soto is ready to play, he’s expected to play defense, and not be limited to DH.

“It’s just how he feels,’’ Boone said. “With the answers we got back from the testing, we’re not worried about him doing anything baseball-wise.”

Without Soto again on Sunday, the Yankees put Trent Grisham in center field again, with Aaron Judge shifting from center to right.

Soto had played every game this season prior to the forearm discomfort and played in all 162 games with the Padres last year.

With their bullpen battered by extensive recent use, the Yankees designated Dennis Santana for assignment on Sunday and recalled another right-handed reliever, Ron Marinaccio, from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Santana struggled in Saturday’s loss to the Dodgers, unable to get out of the top of the ninth, which forced the Yankees to go to infielder Oswaldo Cabrera for the final out.

After Saturday’s game, Boone blamed Santana’s ineffectiveness on overuse, having thrown 33 pitches on Wednesday, 12 in an appearance on Friday and 39 on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Santana has been inconsistent most of the season and especially ineffective of late, having allowed eight earned runs in 5 ¹/₃ innings over his last four appearances.

Marinaccio, 28, has pitched well this season, split between The Bronx and SWB.

“He’s in a good place,’’ Boone said of Marinaccio. “He was frustrated going down last time, but to his credit, he did what he needed to do.”