Harrison Bader’s Yankees debut inching closer

For the first time since the Yankees acquired him from the Cardinals at the trade deadline, Harrison Bader has a real target for a return to games.

The center fielder, who has been out since late June with plantar fasciitis, continued his ramp-up on Monday with a pregame workout in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. If he continues to progress as planned this week, he could start a rehab assignment by next Tuesday – if not sooner, according to manager Aaron Boone.

“This will be an important week for him in that he’ll do full pregame outfield work, final running progression, continuing to hit,” Boone said before the Yankees hosted the Twins. “If all goes well there, could start a rehab – we have him targeted for the 13th, which is next Tuesday. But we could even move that up if this week continues to look like what we hope.”

It’s unclear how many rehab games Bader will need before he is ready to be activated, especially since he last played a game on June 26. But Boone believes that Bader will have enough time to be a productive major leaguer before the postseason begins, even if he might only have about the final two weeks of the regular season to play in.

“Oh yeah, because I think he could be playing in a [rehab] game Sunday,” Boone said. “Then you’re talking about a handful of games – it’ll probably be even a little more of that. I think he’s trending in a good direction.”

The Yankees could certainly use a healthy Bader, especially as their outfield took another hit over the weekend when Andrew Benintendi broke the hook of his hamate bone in his right wrist and could undergo surgery by Tuesday.

Though it remains to be seen what kind of production Bader can bring once he returns, the Gold Glover said he felt “great” and planned to keep things simple while relying on his athleticism.

“I think I’ll be 100 percent ready to compete,” Bader said. “Whatever I can squeeze out of that is where I’ll be. Trying to return to a version of myself that I thought I was prior to this injury, it’s not real. It’s in your head and in many ways it holds you back. It’s a clean slate. Go out there and soak up as much as I can and play winning baseball. That’s all that matters.”

The Yankees originally hoped Anthony Rizzo (back) would be able to resume baseball activities on Monday, but instead the first baseman stayed home on doctor’s orders to rest after experiencing headaches from the epidural he recently received.

If Rizzo continues to be headache-free on Monday and Tuesday, he could return on Wednesday to begin ramping up again.

“Back’s doing well, but they want him to rest and make sure he’s asymptomatic from any of the headaches,” Boone said.

Still, Boone said he did not expect it to turn into an injured list stint for Rizzo, especially with the Yankees already carrying two extra position players with expanded rosters.