Yankees' Juan Soto still contributing despite pain in right hand

BALTIMORE — Juan Soto has played in 10 games since jamming his right hand sliding into home plate on June 28 during a victory — a rarity for the Yankees of late — in Toronto.

His results have been mixed  in that stretch, but there has been one constant: pain.

Soto missed all of one game — on June 29 — after suffering the injury, and he singled sharply in his first at-bat June 30 after being added to the day’s lineup against the Blue Jays about 20 minutes before first pitch.

But after that game, Soto used the word “pain” in answering questions about the hand.

And even after going 2-for-3 with his 22nd home run, a double and two walks in Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field, he used it again.

“It’s been better with what the trainers have been doing. It’s still painful, but I think it’s been better,” said Soto, who roped a double in his first at-bat Thursday night, then rocketed a 425-foot homer, which left his bat at 108.4 mph, to left-center his second time up. “First day here [Tuesday] of the series, it was really painful, but it got better the next two days.”

It did not appear better during his at-bat in the seventh inning on Thursday, as he swung and missed at three straight changeups from Jason Adam. Soto, clearly in discomfort, called time after swinging and missing at a 1-and-1 pitch, and after stepping back in the box, he took a weak swing at a 1-and-2 pitch that was well outside.

Soto is 9-for-36 (.250) with two homers and an .885 OPS in the 10 games since the injury, but it is important to point out that he was in a mini-slump before incurring the injury. He was 4-for-30 (.133)  with a .642 OPS in the 10  games leading up to June 28.

Soto underwent imaging, which came back negative, on the hand shortly after suffering the injury.

“I just go out there and try to do my job,” he said. “Try to play with the situation and try to get it done. At the end of the day, they told me it’s nothing serious, it’s going to go away by itself, so I just go out there and try doing my job.”

Of course, when it will go away is where the uncertainty lies. Soto, who was in the lineup on Friday night against the Orioles and still plans on participating in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas, after being voted in as the American League’s starting rightfielder, does not think the hand will require maintenance for the remainder of the season. But he didn’t completely dismiss the notion, either.

“I won’t say the rest of the season. I think as we make improvements, I think it’s going to go away the next couple of weeks or maybe the next couple of months,” Soto said. “We will see. I hope I don’t have to deal with it the whole season, but we’ll see.”

Because testing on the hand did not reveal any structural damage, the Yankees don’t feel Soto is putting himself at further risk by playing through something that, while not affecting him all of the time, clearly is bothering him  some of the time.

“If there was potential to do more damage, he wouldn’t be out there,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, we’ve looked at it, we’ve got the images and everything of it. Yeah, that’s the recommendation [he can play].”

Soto, still hitting .297 with 22 homers, 64 RBIs, a .992 OPS, an MLB-leading .432 on-base percentage and an MLB-leading 79 walks, said he feels pain not on check swings, as one might assume.

“I would say just on my follow through whenever I swing and miss the ball,” Soto said. “If I hit the ball, I’m fine.”

Davis to the IL, Vivas up

The Yankees put J.D. Davis on the 10-day injured list on Friday because of a bout with stomach flu and brought up Jorbit Vivas from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Davis has played sparingly since being acquired from the A’s on June 23 because of the immediate splash made by rookie first baseman Ben Rice.The lefthanded-hitting Vivas, acquired in the offseason from the Dodgers along with lefthander Victor Gonzalez, enjoyed a solid big-league camp before suffering an orbital fracture just before the end of spring training. Vivas, hitting .258 with five homers and an .828 OPS in 37 games with Scranton, isn’t likely to have a long stay in his first taste of the majors, but before Friday night’s game, Boone didn’t rule out the possibility of the 23-year-old playing in some capacity this weekend.