Oswald Peraza to start season on IL in latest Yankees concern

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Oswald Peraza will open the season on the injured list, and the Yankees need to figure out who will be their backup shortstop.

Peraza has been diagnosed with a subscapularis strain in his right shoulder, manager Aaron Boone said Saturday, that will prompt the infielder to restrain from throwing for six to eight weeks.

A best-case scenario would involve Peraza beginning to throw again on April 20 — three and a half weeks into the season — and then a buildup process would begin.

“I want to give everything I can for the team, but there’s certain things I can’t control,” Peraza said in Tampa through an interpreter. “I’m really devastated.”

Peraza was competing to make the Opening Day roster as a flexible and defensively gifted backup infielder.

If he wants to prove himself after a subpar 2023 season, he will need to wait.

“In some ways it was OK news in that the capsule and everything was OK,” Boone said before the Yankees played the Twins at Hammond Stadium. “So it seems like it is just going to be this shutdown period that’s obviously going to cost him some season. But still there’s a lot in front of him in this season.”

Without Peraza, utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera could serve as the backup shortstop, but he may be needed to bounce around the entire baseball field.

Non-roster invites Kevin Smith and Josh VanMeter are among the competition to try to grab a spot, though the Yankees — who were interested in both Kiké Hernandez and Amed Rosario before the infielders signed elsewhere — could look externally.

“A lot of things still could shake out,” Boone said.