Yankees’ Corey Kluber throws live batting practice for first time since tearing shoulder in 2020

TAMPA — The Yankees took their new two-time Cy Young winner out for a test drive Sunday morning. The veteran Corey Kluber, coming off a torn shoulder muscle that forced him to miss most of the 2020 season, threw live batting practice for the first time.

“Good. Obviously we’ve talked about he’s to come in here having thrown live and he’s even been more strenuous than what today was,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after watching Kluber throw. “I thought he executed a lot of pitches. It was good to get Gary (Sanchez) with him in a live setting. Another good step forward in the process for him.”

Kluber worked with Sanchez behind the plate facing several hitters. He threw 21 pitches in what was basically a simulated inning of work. Behind the mound were the cameras and computers used by the analytics department.

The 34-year-old missed most of last season with the Rangers due to a torn teres major muscle in his right shoulder. He missed much of the 2019 season after fracturing his arm on a comebacker.

Still, when he worked out for teams this winter in Jupiter, Fla. he looked enough like himself to earn a one-year, $11 million deal with the Yankees.

“He looked healthy and in terrific physical shape,” one of the scouts there for Kluber’s showcase said. “He had a really good feel for the ball as far as pitch shapes and command. We weren’t there looking for velo or spin rates.”

Kluber, who will be 35 on April 10, has declared himself healthy and with no issues from the shoulder.

“I’ve had no issues with it now or anywhere along the rehab process,” Kluber said Friday. “That’s encouraging. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m still working on improving the shoulder or anything like that. I think it’s in a spot where, like any part of your body, it takes maintenance throughout the year. But I’m not putting any more emphasis on that than I am anything else at this point.”

COOL IT

You’ve seen the videos of Jasson Dominguez crushing baseballs. You’ve heard the reports calling him “The Martian,” and comparing him to the likes of Mike Trout and Mickey Mantle.

But the Yankees would hope that dies down when the 18-year-old Dominguez gets his first chance to play professional baseball sometime this spring.

“I don’t really think it’s fair,” Yankees’ head of Player Development Kevin Reese said Sunday. “He hasn’t played a game here yet. It’s hard to help him manage those expectations because he’s not going to show up tomorrow and perform like Mike Trout or Aaron Judge or Brett Gardner. So, just keep him working and our goal is to get the best Jasson Dominguez possible and hopefully that’s a really good player that helps us win games and win championships.”

The Yankees gave Dominguez a $5.1-million signing bonus at age 16 out of the Dominican Republic in 2019.

HOMEWORK KING

Coming off a rookie 2020 season, Mike King decided he needed to do more homework this winter. He headed down to Tampa early and spent his time throwing live batting practice to his teammates. He faced the likes of Aaron Judge and Mike Ford, who helped him learn a lot about himself.

“Luckily, I’m not facing guys like that in season,” King said, “but it was awesome for me because I kind of treated it more like a bullpen than a live batting practice, where I would throw what I think is an excellent breaking ball, and he would take it. I can immediately say, ‘Why did you take that pitch,’ instead of just being like, ‘Oh is an executed pitch,’ and be happy that it was an executed pitch.

“Judge would say, ‘It started off a little too low for me to go after,’ or I remember going in on him with changeups that would finish like a ball off the plate,” King continued. “And I’m like, how are you taking that pitch? That to me is a really executed pitch, I feel like I’m getting so many misses on that. And he’d say... as a sinker ball hitter, he does not want anything on the inside part of the plate because if he does make contact seen on his face it’s gonna be soft contact. He’s looking for something away. So, if I know the approach of the hitter — and that’s me doing my homework or whatever — I would know that he’s more susceptible to pitches off the plate away because he’s looking away or strikes on the inside part of the plate because he’s not gonna swing that.

“So, even just finding that out, made me realize okay I love throwing a right-on-right changeup, but to a guy that has that approach, I can’t throw that because it’s not gonna be executed,” King said. “I think Ford is one of the best like visual hitters; he has a great eye for the zone. Lefties have always been a struggle of mine, so being able to face him the entire offseason was great for me and my confidence to know exactly what pitches work, what pitches come out as balls.”