Yankees manager Aaron Boone expects Juan Soto to be out ‘a couple days’ with left elbow injury

Juan Soto remained out of the New York Yankees’ starting lineup Saturday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers because of left elbow inflammation.

The star right fielder missed his first game of the season Friday night in the series opener after being removed from Thursday’s game versus Minnesota with forearm discomfort. A scan showed only inflammation, which Soto called “a relief,” and he is day to day.

“We’re leaning towards giving it a couple days, for sure,” manager Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon. “So we’ll see how he does today, and moving around.”

Center fielder Trent Grisham replaced Soto in the lineup again, with Aaron Judge shifting from center to right. And for the second consecutive night, left fielder Alex Verdugo was moved up from cleanup to Soto’s regular No. 2 spot in the batting order.

New York began the day with the best record in the American League at 45-20, but the Yankees had managed only one run in 14 innings at the plate since Soto exited Thursday’s win over the Twins.

He said after the game that the forearm on his throwing arm had been bothering him for about 1 1/2 or two weeks.

Boone said Soto was receiving treatment Saturday.

“I think he sees the big picture in all this, too. And as much as this environment, this series, I mean I’m sure there’s part of it that’s killing him, not being in, but I think he’s also like, I also know I want to get this inflammation out of there and we can roll,” Boone said.

“That said, I don’t think when he goes out there like, he’s putting himself at risk or anything. It’s not that kind of situation. But, want to try and get it out of there, so we’ll continue to kind of see how he’s improving, and when he’s ready he’s ready.”

Boone was asked whether the injured list is a possibility if Soto doesn’t make much progress over the next few days.

“I guess it is a possibility, but I don’t expect that to be the case,” the manager said.

Soto is batting .318 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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