Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton takes batting practice with teammates for first time this season

CLEVELAND – It has been a slow climb in the progress department for Giancarlo Stanton, a player who still couldn’t grip a bat with a couple of weeks left in spring training.

But the veteran DH started swinging in the cages some two weeks ago and Tuesday brought another step toward returning to the field: taking batting practice with his teammates.

“They’re getting better,” Stanton said of his elbows after the BP session, which took place before the Yankees played the second of their three-game series against the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Stanton arrived at spring training having not swung a bat in weeks, the result of tendon tears in both of his elbows (he and the Yankees have called it “tennis elbow”).

Though he said “I’m not sure” when asked when he might be cleared to begin a rehab assignment, the fact Stanton has been able to hit inside – doing much of that off the Trajekt machine, which more or less is a pitching robot that can be programmed to replicate the pitching trajectories of just about any big-league pitcher – and now outside on the field without any setbacks isn’t without significance.

Ben Rice, back in the lineup at DH Tuesday night after leaving Saturday’s game in Tampa against the Rays with a left elbow contusion, has mitigated the loss of Stanton with his performance so far. Rice, who had an electric debut last season before tailing off offensively, entered Tuesday hitting .288 with five homers and a .988 OPS.

Rice hit a home run on the first pitch of Tuesday night's game.

“I definitely saw spurts of this, so I think he’s just putting it together (more consistently),” Stanton said of Rice. “It’s hard to get a gauge as you first come up. The adjustments (he’s made) have been important.”

Matzek up, Gomez out

Before Tuesday’s game the Yankees signed lefty reliever Tyler Matzek, a non-roster invitee to spring training who likely would have made the club out of camp had he not suffered an oblique injury, to a major league contract and added him to the active roster. Righthander Yoendrys Gomez, who made the club out of the spring in large part because he was out of options, was designated for assignment.

The 25-year-old Gomez, signed by the Yankees as an undrafted free agent out of Venezuela at the age of 16, at one point was considered a top organizational prospect. Gomez is likely to be claimed off waivers but if he isn’t he could end up back with the Yankees in the minors. The 34-year-old Matzek, meanwhile, is a pitcher the Yankees hope can recapture the form he showed earlier in his career, especially in 2021 when he was a key member of the World Series-winning Atlanta bullpen, for which he had a 2.57 ERA in 69 games. Matzek had been working his way back from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in October 2022.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.