Aaron Boone claims Giancarlo Stanton much closer to return as Yankees timeline remains uncertain

There remains no known timetable for Giancarlo Stanton, but based on what Aaron Boone is seeing, the return of the designated hitter “shouldn’t be too far off.”The Yankees manager wanted to correct the record on Stanton on Tuesday, telling the “Talkin’ Yanks” podcast that Stanton is closer to rejoining the club than reports had indicated.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

Asked Wednesday, Boone said that the lack of a public and known timeline does not mean Stanton is a great distance away from playing again.“I feel like he’s moving in a good direction,” Boone said before a doubleheader in The Bronx against the Pirates.“I just don’t know if [his return is] a couple of weeks from now, a few weeks from now, whatever it is.“But he is getting much closer to that point.”Stanton has not played since suffering a right calf strain on April 24.He appeared on the verge of a return in mid-June, when he had progressed to running the bases, but then felt something in his calf that Brian Cashman later clarified was “a whole new injury,” rather than a setback.Since that point, Stanton has not run the bases, and the Yankees have not offered much detail about when the powerful but oft-injured slugger could return.In what is probably the most optimistic update yet from Boone, the manager said Stanton “is running, and so I think based on that, it shouldn’t be too far off.”Stanton has been in his running progression for several weeks.

Boone said Stanton is at the stage of reaching “certain speed points” and then “obviously bouncing back and recovering.”There is still little clarity about the exact details of Stanton’s daily workload, but the club says he is making progress and has been hitting.Stanton generally prefers skipping rehab assignments, feeling he can be ready by swinging off the Trajekt machine, but a return-to-play plan, ...