TAMPA, Fla. -- Brett Gardner took his first swings of the spring on Thursday, but they were not on the field with the rest of his teammates on the first day of full-squad workouts. They were in the batting cage under the stands, off a tee and against some underhand tosses, and it is the only kind of hitting Gardner will do for the next week or so.
It is part of the New York Yankees' plan to bring their starting left fielder along slowly this spring because of a lingering bone bruise on his left wrist suffered in their wild-card playoff loss to the Houston Astros last October.