Didi Gregorius may want to find his passport.
Seven and a half months removed from Tommy John surgery, Gregorius could be back in pinstripes as soon as next week’s road trip to Toronto and Cleveland, which begins Tuesday against the Blue Jays.
“Not on the homestand [that ends Sunday], but possibly sometime on the road trip,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday before the Yankees’ series opener against the Red Sox was rained out. “We’ll see. We’ll just kind of take it day by day here, every couple of days kind of evaluate where he’s at.”
The weather may be the biggest threat to hold Gregorius back. He was scheduled to play nine innings as the designated hitter Thursday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but that games was also washed out. It was the second time in three days Gregorius’ game with the RailRiders was postponed. Wednesday, he played all seven innings at shortstop in the RailRiders’ shortened game as part of a doubleheader, his first action in the Triple-A portion of his rehab stint.
While Gregorius had only played in three official rehab games before Thursday — batting 2-for-10 with a home run, with the first two games coming with Single-A Tampa — Boone indicated the lack of at-bats wouldn’t hold the Yankees back from activating him.
“Didi has accumulated a lot of at-bats over essentially the last month, being down in Tampa in extended [spring training] and getting those live at-bats,” Boone said. “So we feel like he’s pretty far along.”
The key indicator of when Gregorius could be ready is watching him play back-to-back nights at shortstop for nine innings.
“He hasn’t done any of that yet,” Boone said. “Once he does that, then there’s a chance he could probably be joining with us here pretty soon.”
RailRiders manager Jay Bell told reporters Tuesday that Gregorius would be with them for six days, putting him in line to rejoin the Yankees in Toronto.
In Gregorius’ absence, Gleyber Torres has started 47 games at shortstop, his natural position, after becoming an All-Star at second base as a rookie last year. Torres entered Friday batting .288 with an .882 OPS while committing seven errors at shortstop.
Gregorius is one of 14 Yankees currently on the injured list, though he could be the next to return, another shot in the arm for the AL East’s first-place team.



