#Yankees have hope Aaron Judge will play Opening Day

Aaron Judge took batting practice and stood in right field, but wasn’t in either Yankees’ lineup for Tuesday night’s intrasquad game at Yankee Stadium.

Judge hasn’t played in an intrasquad game since last Thursday due to neck stiffness.

At 2:50 p.m., Aaron Boone said on a Zoom call Judge was receiving treatment and there was a “chance’’ Judge could do some work on the field after treatment.

According to Boone, when Judge arrived at the Stadium on Tuesday there was improvement in the neck area and the issue hadn’t required tests.

Asked whether Judge would be in the lineup, if it were Opening Day, Boone said Judge would have been asking in.

“I think he would probably be pushing to get in knowing him. It would have come down from a swing standpoint,” Boone said. “How much would it have affected him? Could it be something that leads to a bad habit or something.’’

Boone doesn’t think he will be without Judge at the start of the season next Thursday in Washington.

“I do feel like it is a short-term thing that he will work through,’’ said Boone who was impressed with Judge’s swings before the neck issue surfaced. “I feel really good about how much he has been able to build up. He has played a number of innings in the field so I feel he is in a good spot moving forward to be ready to go Opening Day.’’

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During the winter Matt Duffy had to decide between accepting a minor league contract from the Rangers or the Yankees and the infielder chose Texas because he believed the chance of playing more existed there.

So when the Rangers released him on the day major league teams had to submit their spring training 2.0 rosters (June 28), Duffy hoped the Yankees would circle back. An hour after being released by the Rangers, Duffy said he heard from the Yankees who signed him to a minor league deal.

“I knew there was interest there from the offseason and was hoping that it would still be there,’’ the 29-year-old infielder said on a Zoom call before the Yankees’ intrasquad game where Duffy was at second base, a position that could be open if DJ LeMahieu can’t start the season. Tyler Wade appears to be the leading candidate if LeMahieu is out. Duffy not being on the 40-man roster is a drawback but not a deal killer.

While the bulk of Duffy’s five-year career, which has been interrupted by injuries but productive when healthy, has been at third base (377 games) he believes there would not be a problem handling second base where he has played 18 big-league games.

“I am pretty comfortable there, been there for one intrasquad game and there [Tuesday night]. I was honestly surprised how comfortable I felt over there,’’ said Duffy, who broke into the majors with the Giants and was dealt to the Rays, who released him following the 2019 season. “Nowadays with modern shifting and field play you kind of have to see yourself as a defender in the infield. You can’t limit yourself to one spot. As a shortstop you are playing on both sides of (second). As a third baseman you are playing the entire left side. Coming from Tampa where they like to move guys around a lot I got a lot of work at different positions. Not a lot of game reps (at second) but not a place that I am uncomfortable.’’

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According to Boone, the Yankees are close to deciding what players on the spring training 2.0 roster will be sent to their satellite facility in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“We will probably have something pretty soon,’’ Boone said.

As for moving players Boone said how many at a time and when will be discussed.

“We might do it in waves. Those are conversations we got to have here over the next 24 hours about who we might send out and how many,’’ said Boone, whose roster has to be at 30 before next Thursday night’s season opener.

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Beck Way, the Yankees’ fourth-round pick in the June draft, signed for $600,000 Tuesday. That is above the $438,700 slot value attached to the 129th pick.

Way, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, pitched for Northwest Florida Junior College.

Way’s signing means the Yankees have inked all three picks. They didn’t have selections in the second and fifth rounds. Catcher Austin Wells, the Yankees’ first-round (28th overall) pick out of the University of Arizona, signed for $2.5 million which was slightly more than the $2,495,900 slot value. Trevor Hauver, an infielder/outfielder from Arizona State, was taken in the third round and signed for $587,400 which was the slot value for the 99th-overall pick.

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Longtime Yankee amateur scout Cesar Presbott, Long Island product Johnny Morris who played at Seton Hall, was a first-round pick of the Royals in 1982 (10th overall) and played for the Cardinals, Phillies and Angels in seven seasons and former New York Post columnist Kevin Kernan will be among the 2020 inductees to the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame on Nov. 1 in Troy N.Y.

Former Brooklyn Dodger first baseman and Mets manager Gil Hodges and Jerry Koosman will also be inducted. Past inductees include Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Podres.

Presbott, who was involved in the drafting and signing of Dellin Betances out of Brooklyn’s Grand Street Campus High School, is retiring at the end of October. Betances was taken in the eighth round by the Yankees in the 2006 draft.