NEW YORK — New York Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu said he hopes he can return from the injured list before the regular season ends.
The 36-year-old said he had a cortisone shot Thursday in his right hip, which had been suffering from an impingement and had been bothering him for a “couple of weeks” prior to the Yankees placing him on the 15-day injured list on Sept. 9.
“(I’ll) see how it responds,” LeMahieu said before a game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
Asked whether he was hopeful he could be back, he said, “Yeah, definitely.”
On Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone said this regarding LeMahieu’s potential return: “I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out, but I wouldn’t count on it either.”
The earliest LeMahieu could be activated from the injured list would be Sept. 21, since the Yankees backdated the beginning of his IL stint to Sept. 6. “I love this group of guys,” LeMahieu said. “I really think this is going to be a really fun next month and a half.”
Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees made the following roster moves:
• Recalled OF Jasson Domínguez (#89) from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
• Returned INF Jon Berti (#19) from his rehab assignment and reinstated him from the 60-day injured list.
• Placed INF DJ LeMahieu on…— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 9, 2024
LeMahieu said there hasn’t been any talk about potential surgery. “There’s some stuff going on in the hip there,” he said. “Just trying to clear it up, get that hip moving a little better.”
He said his hip had been impeding his ability to rotate at the plate. “It was some of those things where sometimes I was rotating, sometimes I wasn’t,” he said. “Working out in the weight room and with the trainers and with the training staff — it was there, it wasn’t there. It was there, it wasn’t there.”
LeMahieu was hitting .204 with two home runs, 26 RBIs and a .527 OPS in 67 games. It wasn’t the kind of production the three-time All-Star and two-time batting champion has been used to. “It’s been pretty tough,” he said.
Injuries have been a major nuisance for LeMahieu in recent seasons. At the end of spring training, he fouled a ball off his right foot, leading to a bruise that kept him on the IL until May 28.
LeMahieu endured right second toe inflammation late in 2022, which held him out for much of that September and kept him off the playoff roster. Since LeMahieu led the American League with a .364 batting average in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he’s hit .270 with a .720 OPS over 411 games.
When the Yankees put LeMahieu on the IL, they called up top outfield prospect Jasson Domínguez. After this season, the Yankees will still owe LeMahieu a combined $30 million over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
(Photo of LeMahieu: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
