ANAHEIM, Calif. — There’s a chance that Josh Donaldson has played his final game as a Yankee.
The veteran third baseman was diagnosed with a high-grade calf strain — severe enough that it is considered a tear — that will knock him out for weeks, which makes it unclear whether he has a shot to play again this season.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Donaldson said Monday at Angel Stadium. “We’ll see how the rehab stuff goes. Hopefully it heals pretty quick.”
Manager Aaron Boone was also noncommittal when asked whether Donaldson might be able to get back this season.
“We’ll see. We’ll see,” Boone said. “Obviously a high-grade strain, it’s in a small area, but nonetheless, that’s going to take a decent amount of time. We’ll see as the weeks unfold here.”
The 37-year-old Donaldson suffered the injury in Saturday’s win over the Rockies while trying to run out a ground ball and then underwent an MRI exam on Sunday that revealed the severity.
He had been dealing with some calf soreness for at least a week, but thought he could play through it.
The Yankees got two opinions on the diagnosis after Sunday’s MRI, with their own team doctor calling it a grade “2-plus” strain and another doctor in Denver calling it a grade-3 strain.
When Donaldson heard that, it quickly entered his mind whether he could play again this season.
“Of course,” he said. “We’re getting to the point of the season where it’s later in the year and we’re running out of games, and really time. But for me, my mindset is I try to stay as positive as I can with it and take it to where I’m trying to make small improvements day-to-day.”
Donaldson, who also missed nearly two months with a hamstring strain earlier this season, was batting .142 with a .659 OPS, with 10 of his 15 hits being home runs.
He and the Yankees have a mutual $6 million option for 2024, which is not expected to be picked up.
But Donaldson was not ready to consider what this injury might mean for his future.
“Whatever happens in the future for me, I’m not putting stock into that at the moment,” he said. “I’m trying to get better and hopefully have an opportunity to come back.”
Before the Yankees began their series against the Angels on Monday night, two of their key rehabbing players took the field.
Nestor Cortes (rotator cuff strain) threw a live batting practice session in which he faced Aaron Judge (right big toe sprain), plus Franchy Cordero.
If Cortes rebounds from this session as expected — his third time facing live hitters — the plan is for the left-hander to begin a rehab assignment on Saturday. Cortes is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list on Aug. 3.
Judge, meanwhile, did not take any swings in the session but instead used it to track live pitching. He began taking batting practice on the field on Friday in Denver and was expected to do so again on Monday, in addition to some running.
Frankie Montas joined the Yankees at Angel Stadium on Monday after meeting with Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
The appointment with ElAttrache, who performed Montas’ shoulder surgery in February, went fine and Montas will continue his throwing program, per Boone.
The Yankees signed their top two draft picks on Monday in first-rounder George Lombard Jr., a high school shortstop, and third-rounder Kyle Carr, a junior college left-hander.
