#Yankees’ Luis Cessa is exceeding expectations after coronavirus

A positive COVID-19 test prevented Luis Cessa from joining the Yankees until Saturday. But as his teammates prepared for the upcoming 60-game sprint, the reliever made sure he wouldn’t be far behind.

Having only experienced extremely mild symptoms of the coronavirus after contracting it days before the beginning of spring training 2.0, Cessa constructed a weight room in his garage and maintained his conditioning by running when the local Arizona streets were quietest. In order to keep his right arm fresh, the 28-year-old threw to himself, with the help of a net he purchased.

“The trainers told me not to do anything the first couple days, just figure out how you feel,” Cessa said on a Zoom call Monday. “I found the hours when nobody’s outside. I just tried to stay in shape. I bought a net and went to the park. I had a bucket of balls and played catch with the net. So, that’s my quarantine workout.”

Cessa, whose girlfriend’s fever prompted them both to take COVID-19 tests, said the only symptoms he experienced were a loss of taste and smell.

“I didn’t feel anything,” Cessa said. “[But] it scared me when the test came back positive. For sure it scared me. I called my mom. I just tried to stay in contact with doctors. But thank God I never had symptoms.”

Cessa, whose girlfriend also tested positive and has since recovered, said the couple had limited exposure to others as he awaited travel to New York and suspects one of them contracted the virus while going food shopping in a state suffering from one of the largest outbreaks in the world.

“I live with my girlfriend and we tried to figure out where we got the virus,” Cessa said. “Really, we don’t know. Maybe in the supermarket when we went to buy something? Because we didn’t have contact with anybody.”

Now, back in The Bronx, Cessa felt strong enough to throw a 31-pitch bullpen session before Monday’s exhibition game against the Phillies.

“Actually, I was supposed to only throw 20 pitches, but [pitching coach] Matt [Blake] said, ‘Hey, how do you feel?’ ” Cessa said. “I said, ‘I feel great.’ [He said], ‘You look great. So, you think you can throw 10 more?’ ”

It is currently unclear if Cessa will be ready to be placed on the 30-man roster for Thursday’s season opener against the Nationals. Entering his fifth year with the Yankees, Cessa is coming off a season in which he threw a career-high 81 innings, while posting a career-best 4.11 ERA.