BOSTON — For most of the spring, Aaron Boone raved about DJ LeMahieu and how “explosive” he looked at the plate.
A non-displaced foot fracture delayed the Yankees from getting to see that in games that counted, and in the small sample size since LeMahieu has returned, it has yet to fully translate as he gets his legs underneath him.
The veteran infielder entered Sunday’s series finale against the Red Sox at Fenway Park batting .196 (9-for-46) with no extra-base hits and a .498 OPS through 14 games.
After missing around two months with the foot injury, LeMahieu was still trying to find his groove in what is still the early part of the season for him.
“I feel all right,” LeMahieu said after going 1-for-4 with three RBIs in Saturday’s loss to the Red Sox. “Just haven’t got that consistent groove yet. Kind of here, kind of there. But overall I feel like I’m getting into a better and better spot.
“Just seeing the ball, making good swing decisions. I feel like that’s improving overall.”
LeMahieu, who went 0-for-2 with a walk in the Yankees’ 9-3 loss Sunday, had reached base safely in 11 of his 14 games since returning from the 60-day injured list, drawing seven walks (compared to 12 strikeouts) along the way.
“Getting there,” Boone said Sunday. “I think he’s seeing the ball all right. Obviously throws a few RBIs out there [Saturday] night, which was good, just to get a little traction going. But hopefully start to get into that groove where he’s hitting the ball on a line consistently. Still working to get there.”
As for that explosiveness?
In his season debut against the Angels on May 28, LeMahieu hit three balls on the screws, despite them all going for outs.
But overall, his average exit velocity coming into Sunday was 87.6 mph (down from his career average of 90.6) and his hard-hit rate of 37.1 percent was the lowest of his career (in which he has averaged 43.8 percent).
Still, Boone said he believes the explosiveness is still there.
“I do [see it],” Boone said. “I see it in his [batting practice] especially. But then again, you go through a long layoff and you kind of stop and start and get yourself going. Even for as good a hitter as he is, sometimes it takes a minute to get that rhythm. He’s getting there. I don’t think he’s far off.”
The Yankees have mostly used LeMahieu in the bottom third of their lineup, giving him a lower-stress spot (usually in the nine-hole) to find his rhythm.
And if the rest of their lineup is clicking the way it has been, they can wait on LeMahieu to start hitting like himself again.
The soft-spoken 35-year-old said he felt “good” physically — which is about as much description as he will ever use when talking about himself — and his play in the field would support that sentiment.
He entered Sunday with three Outs Above Average at third base, which ranked eighth at the position among fielders with at least 25 attempts.
“I feel like he’s very much DJ in the field,” Boone said.
Now they just need him to look like DJ in the box.
Through his first 13 games, LeMahieu had recorded just one RBI but drove in three runs on Saturday night with some well-placed contact, even if it was not well-hit.
He hit a blooper to right field that scored a pair of runs in his first at-bat and then with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of a three-run game, he hit a soft grounder to shortstop that drove in a run as he beat out a potential double play.
