Harrison Bader slated to make first rehab appearance Sunday, is eager to return

Harrison Bader, not surprisingly, called the process “frustrating.”

The centerfielder, acquired from the Cardinals in exchange for starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery in a last-minute deal before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, has been unable to play because of a severe case of plantar fasciitis. 

Bader, born and raised in Bronxville, has not appeared in a game since June 26 but is slated to begin a rehab assignment Sunday with Double-A Somerset. If all goes well, Aaron Boone said that after about a “week’s worth” of games, he could be deemed ready for the big leagues in time for the Yankees’ series against the Pirates, which starts Sept. 20.

Is there one final hurdle that Bader thinks he needs to clear during his rehab before feeling game-ready? “No, I mean, I think I'm pretty geared up ready to go for this Sunday,” he said. “It's really just a matter of getting on a baseball field, just checking off boxes in terms of feeling comfortable physically at game speed, and once those are checked, I'm going to go and be a winning player for this team.”

The Yankees certainly have been lacking in those of late. They hope that when Bader does return, he’ll instantly improve the club defensively — he won the 2021 Gold Glove in centerfield with the Cardinals — and contribute to the offense with his speed.

The deal continues to be a sore subject in the Yankees' clubhouse for reasons having nothing to do with Bader and everything to do with the players’ feelings in general about Montgomery as a pitcher and a teammate. Montgomery is 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA in seven starts for the Cardinals, and when the Yankees made the trade, they knew Bader would not be available until mid-to-late September.

Bader  said that although he is not completely pain-free, his plantar fasciitis will be manageable the rest of the way. “There's definitely discomfort,” he said. “But the reality is, where I'm at right now, it's not going to get worse.

"The key is, the way I felt was, in talking with a number of doctors. I was just running the risk [by coming back too soon] of kind of rupturing the plantar fascia, and that just presents a number of challenges moving forward, especially for me, who relies on his legs a lot. 

"There's just a lot of stuff that goes into it that I really wanted to avoid, obviously, so taking the time and being surrounded by people who handled the situation properly, I'm just really grateful. There's a lot of work that went into it and I'm just really happy to come back and battle through whatever I battled through, but I’m really looking forward, I couldn't be more excited, couldn't be more positive. And I just, again, I can't wait to be in pinstripes finally. It's been so long.”

As for the frustration of not being able to contribute as the healing process took its time, Bader said that’s not something he dwells on.

“It's definitely frustrating. I would say it's more challenging if anything, though,” he said. “Frustration in many ways is a wasted energy, especially when I was going through this process. The frustration really can kind of eat you alive, especially when you don't really have any ability to do anything about it on the field. So I just viewed everything as a challenge. And quite honestly, I like to frame everything as positively as I can. So the adversity that I went through, the challenges of being traded, when you can't really do anything about it, all those things, they're all good things, honestly, in my head. I'm happy that they happened.”