NEW YORK — Corey Kluber has advanced to throwing at 90 feet, part of the process to rebuilding up strength and length in his injured right shoulder. The two-time Cy Young winner, who isn’t expected back in the rotation until at least next month, said he has no idea when he will be ready to pitch again.
“I guess for me, I don’t really have one, I’m trying to do the best I can to take it a day at a time and not look too far ahead,” Kluber said after throwing before Sunday’s doubleheader against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium. “I think that allows me the best chance to give everything I have that day to do everything that day, the best of my ability without trying to look too far in the future.”
Kluber was diagnosed with a strained sub-scapula in his right shoulder and has been on the injured list since May 27. Last weekend, New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman said the team’s timeline was September, to be safe.
That is the process for Kluber, taking it slowly and safely.
“I think the whole point of giving stuff time to heal before you start a throwing program is that, hopefully when you start you don’t run into any bumps in the road,” Kluber said. “So I think that, as much as you’d like for it to be a quicker process, I think you realize that there’s a reason behind taking the different steps throughout the process of rehabbing it so that you don’t hopefully have any setbacks or deal with anything that you know, is out of the ordinary.”
Kluber, who had pitched just one inning since May 2019 before signing the $11 million, one-year deal with the Yankees, was 4-3 with a 3.04 ERA and 55 strikeouts over 53.1 innings pitched. He threw his first career no-hitter the start before he suffered the strain.
His 2019 season was shut down after he suffered a fractured arm on a come-backer and he pitched just one inning in 2020 before being shut down with a muscle tear in his right shoulder.
“Whether you’ve had any (injuries) before or not, I think it’s still something that no player wants to go through,” Kluber said. You want to be out there on the team. You wanna be out there on the field with your team. You want to be competing with your teammates, not watching with a kind of helpless feeling.
“I think at the same time, take a step back and realize when there’s something wrong, you gotta address it so that hopefully it doesn’t keep coming up.”
Mixing up the outfield
Aaron Boone went with a more traditional outfield in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, using Brett Gardner in center field and newly acquired Tim Locastro in left. The plan when the Yankees traded for Locastro was to platoon him in center with Gardner.
“I see him definitely playing against lefties a lot in center field and we’ll just see,” the manager said. “I mean everything matters and there’s opportunities for different guys to take advantage of and run with some playing time.”
Sunday, using both in the outfield gave the Yankees two veteran outfielders with speed. It was a more solid defense than Miguel Andujar in left field to back up struggling ace Gerrit Cole.
“Those will be a little bit interchangeable. I kind of swayed back and forth a little bit on it today. I feel like both guys are kind of similar in that they have tremendous speed and range,” Boone said. “So, there’ll be days where it’s probably flipped, you know, if I bring someone in off the bench, that is the other guy starting, but this is the way I decided for today.”
Britton not ready
Zack Britton will not be coming off the injured list on Tuesday, even though he is eligible. The lefty threw off the mound Saturday, the first time since he strained his left hamstring in a game against the Boston Red Sox.
“He’ll probably throw another bullpen on Tuesday and then kind of see what we want to do as far as the next step,” Boone said. “He’s doing well. His bullpen went well yesterday. So (we’re) encouraged about where he’s at, but I don’t expect him to come off quite yet.”
The Yankees could use a healthy Britton with Aroldis Chapman struggling to command his fastball. Britton missed the first 63 games of the season after having surgery to remove a bone fragment from his left elbow.
Severino steady progress
There were no ill effects from Luis Severino throwing off the mound on Saturday, the first time he was back on the mound since suffering a strained right groin in a rehab game June 12.
“He’ll have another one. He won’t go on the trip with us. So I think he’ll actually travel to maybe like Somerset to throw his next bullpen and then (we’ll) start to think about hitters or when we want to get them into a game and start up his rehab again,” Boone said.
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