Bader was acquired from the Cardinals at the trade deadline last summer after struggling with plantar fasciitis in 2022. He played in 14 regular-season games with the Yankees, reaching base 12 times with 10 hits in 46 at-bats.
A Gold Glove recipient in 2021, Bader is a career .245 hitter with 52 homers and 177 RBIs in 537 games with the Cardinals and Yankees.
The Yankees also optioned infielder/outfielder Franchy Cordero to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre following their 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Monday.
New York has lost four straight and seven of its past nine, but Bader said the team’s woes did not speed up his return.
“That can never be a part of the equation,” Bader said. “It’s easy to kind of fall into that, but there’s never any pressure from the Yankees on their side to push anything along. And the same on my side. I know what I have to feel to be effective for this team to help them win. And that doesn’t involve pushing the timeline up in any way. So it was a mutual decision, and obviously precautionary measures were taken at all times to make sure that we can get back to a point where we’re not prolonging the rehab process.”
Information from ESPN’s Joon Lee and Reuters was used in this report.
