ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As long as Juan Soto does not swing and miss, he does not seem to have an issue with his right hand.
He was mostly successful at that Thursday night, except for one painful-looking whiff.
Soto homered, doubled and drew two walks in the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to the Rays, but also had a swing-and-miss in the seventh inning that forced him to call a timeout to deal with the pain, stemming from the bruised hand he suffered slamming it into the ground on a slide two weeks ago.
“Still painful, but it’s been better [recently],” Soto said after the series finale at Tropicana Field. “I have my days like the first day here, it was really painful, but it got better the next two days.”
Soto, who sat out one game on June 29 because of the hand injurybut has not missed one since, said the medical staff told him it was “nothing serious.”
He has been working with trainers daily, and the expectation is “it’s going to go away by itself” over the coming weeks.
“If I hit the ball, I’m fine,” Soto said. “I hope I don’t have to deal with it the whole season.”
Aaron Boone described it as a pain-tolerance issue, though Soto’s pain has been clear on two swing-and-misses over the past three games.
“If there was potential to do more damage, he wouldn’t be out there,” Boone said. That is why Soto is still planning to play in the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
“Yeah, why not?” Soto said. “It’s a great experience. Definitely I’m going to be careful with it. I’m going to try to take care of it. I’ll let all those guys know about my hand. We’ll see. Just having fun and enjoy the show.”
DJ LeMahieu was out of the lineup Thursday after taking a beating at the plate on Wednesday night.
The Yankees’ veteran infielder went for a CT scan Thursday to make sure he was in the clear after hitting a foul ball that took a hard bounce up into his neck the night before.
“Feel like he’s in a good spot,” said Boone, who indicated LeMahieu’s visit to the doctor was “to rule out anything major” and that a concussion had also been ruled out.
Reliever Scott Effross (Tommy John/back surgeries) made his eighth rehab appearance Thursday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, tossing a scoreless frame on 15 pitches.
Boone said he did not know how many more rehab outings Effross would need before potentially rejoining the Yankees, though they may use all of his 30-day rehab clock (which started June 19) since he has not pitched in the majors since the end of the 2022 season.
“Effross is getting close,” Boone said.
Nick Burdi (right hip inflammation) had advanced to throwing live batting practice June 30 but hit a setback, though Boone said he is “doing much better” and set to throw off a mound on Friday.
Ian Hamilton (lat strain) began a throwing program this week after being shut down for about three weeks.
Lou Trivino (UCL surgery), who has had some setbacks in his rehab, joined the team at Tropicana Field on Wednesday and Thursday and has been throwing bullpen sessions.
Jon Berti (calf strain) has advanced to running at about 95 percent in addition to hitting and taking ground balls.
The utilityman will stay in Tampa to work out at the team’s complex through the weekend before starting a rehab assignment coming out of the All-Star break.