MINNEAPOLIS — Mark Teixeira is looking forward to Tuesday with the hope that it moves him closer to The Bronx on Saturday.
“I’m very excited,” Teixeira said after the Yankees dropped a 7-4 decision to the awful Twins Sunday at Target Field. “We’re hoping the knee doesn’t act up.”
Teixeira took batting practice before Sunday’s game and is on course to begin a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The plan is for Teixeira to play three games, take Friday off and be activated from the DL Saturday.
Teixeira has been on the DL since June 4 due to torn cartilage in his right knee. When he returns, Teixeira can expect daily talks with Joe Girardi and more days off.
“You’re probably going to have to,” Girardi said of resting the switch hitter who is batting .180 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 48 games. “And it’s probably going to be a fact where I’m going to have to check with him every day.”
Teixeira said the knee and neck spasms aren’t the reason for the putrid numbers.
“There are no excuses,” Teixeira said. “I want to get on the field and put it behind me and produce.”
If Teixeira is activated Saturday, the Yankees will have a tough decision to make to clear roster space. Ike Davis provides first-base insurance if Teixeira reinjures the knee, so he can’t be cut loose. The Yankees aren’t likely to go with 11 pitchers. Utilityman Rob Refsnyder has options, but he has been hitting very well lately.
Without a crying need for a starting pitcher, the Yankees aren’t in a hurry to promote Luis Severino from Triple-A, where he has been pitching better lately.
“It still needs some tuning up,” Girardi said. “It’s location and consistency is the big thing. You see some really good pitches, some located pitches, but it’s consistency. And here, you can’t leave balls in the middle of the plate, or they get hammered. I think a lot of times you have to look beyond the numbers.”
Severino pitched for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday night and allowed a run and three hits in 8 ¹/₃ innings in a 7-1 win over Gwinnett. It was Severino’s fifth start for the RailRiders.
“You see that sometimes the location’s not where it needs to be,” Girardi said. “He throws some really good sliders, and then he throws some that are up or lack the downward movement you want. I think he’s making strides, I think he’s becoming more consistent, but we’re looking for some more.”
The Yankees activated lefty reliever Chasen Shreve from the DL Sunday and optioned him to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“We are trying to get him on a roll,” Girardi said of Shreve, who went on the DL May 26 with a left shoulder AC joint sprain and was pitching ineffectively (1-1, 5.21 ERA). “He had some struggles his last four or five outings, so I think it’s important to get him back on a roll so he can help us. He was really, really good until those last few outings, when he gave up some home runs and struggled a bit.”
In Shreve’s last 9 ¹/₃ innings before being shelved, he gave up 10 hits and four of them were homers.