LAKELAND, Fla. — Since Giancarlo Stanton has played left field in exhibition games and Aaron Judge has five innings of a minor league game at the position (on Saturday), it sounds as if Boone will be using Stanton in left on the days the manager wants to rest Brett Gardner against lefties.

“I don’t want to move both of them if I can,’’ manager Aaron Boone said of the right fielders who will get DH at-bats. “But in both cases prepare them both for an extreme situation.’’

The last time CC Sabathia worked the Rogers Centre in Toronto he landed on the DL with a right knee injury he thought might have ended his season in early August a year ago. It turned out the veteran lefty returned 11 days later and went 5-0 with a 2.91 ERA in the final eight starts.

On Saturday, Boone listed the veteran lefty as the No. 3 starter against the Blue Jays in Toronto on March 31 and the first-year manager has no fear that Sabathia’s hinge will be affected.

“We’ve evaluated it on our own and we’ve spoken to CC about it and we don’t think it’s enough of a factor. He is on the mound,’’ Boone said. “And especially the way that kind of turf is I don’t believe it to be a factor with the knee. I am not worried about it from a pitching standpoint.’’

According to Boone, Clint Frazier (concussion) showed improvement Saturday but isn’t ready to take batting practice.

Brandon Drury and Wade made sensational defensive plays in the third inning that Masahiro Tanaka applauded.

“The thing is you see them make those plays and you want to go out there and do your job,” Tanaka said. “But I got to be better.’’

If Gary Sanchez was catching when Masahiro Tanaka threw two wild pitches in the third inning it would have been back-page news. However, Erik Kratz was behind the plate and not much was made of him not handling the pitches. Kratz is ticketed for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

A first-inning double was followed by a strikeout looking in the third with two runners on. However, more encouraging than the double was Greg Bird chasing left fielder Victor Reyes to the warning track with a well-hit fly ball in the seventh.

Named the Opening Day starter Saturday, Luis Severino starts against the Marlins on Sunday at GMS Field. It is Severino’s second spring start.