ANAHEIM, Calif. — Gerrit Cole completed another successful step in his rehab process on Thursday.

Up next: Rehab assignment?

Aaron Boone was not ready to officially announce Cole’s next step just yet, but after the reigning AL Cy Young winner threw 43 pitches in a simulated game at the club’s player development complex, the manager said there’s a “good chance” his next outing could be a rehab game — likely on Tuesday — if he recovers well in the coming days.

“That’s definitely a possibility,” Boone said before an 8-3 win in the series finale at Angel Stadium. “We’ll see how he recovers now. I talked to Gerrit, sounds like everything went well today. He was pretty pleased with his outing and just how he felt. Assuming everything goes well, good chance at a rehab next.”

Once Cole begins a rehab assignment, it will start a 30-day clock, putting him in line for a potential return by the end of June or early July.

The Yankees may use most of those 30 days to properly build up Cole’s workload, as they have been cautious about each step of his rehab so far.

They are not expected to bring him back any earlier because of Clarke Schmidt’s lat strain, which will shut him down for four to six weeks and potentially keep him out until at least August.

Boone would like MLB to change the rule that cost the Yankees on Wednesday night, when Juan Soto was called for interference getting back to second base on an infield fly rule pop up.

It was almost the same exact play that happened last week in a White Sox-Orioles game, after which White Sox manager Pedro Grifol predicted it would happen again with fielding teams trying to get an extra out in the scenario by making contact with the runner on an infield fly.

Boone talked to the league on Thursday and while he said the umpires called the play correctly by the letter of the law, he doesn’t want it to come back into play in a big game later in the year.

“I’m just making the case that they gotta change the rule,” Boone said. “Let’s get on this. Anyone with common sense watching that — god forbid we get in a playoff game or a huge game at some point. You watch that with common sense and you go, ‘That’s dumb that that’s a double play.’ Ball’s in fair territory, infield fly, if there’s any contact with anyone it should just kill the play right away. Batter’s out, no harm, no foul. I don’t know what else a runner’s to do in that spot. He’s in jeopardy of getting doubled off because he didn’t get there quite on time.

“I just think it’s something the league needs to seriously look at and maybe change how they call that. Because then all of a sudden, you start having infielders seeking out contact in those situations and then I think it looks bad on the sport.”

DJ LeMahieu started at first base Thursday for the first time this season, with Anthony Rizzo getting the day off against left-hander Patrick Sandoval.

LeMahieu is expected to get a day off on Friday after playing three straight games upon returning from the IL on Tuesday.