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TAMPA — Tyler Matzek looked like he had an inside track to making the Yankees bullpen as a non-roster invitee to break camp, but an injury will likely stand in the way of that — at least to

start the season. The lefty reliever is dealing with a “moderate to more severe” right oblique strain, manager Aaron Boone said Friday, which popped up after Matzek’s first and only

appearance in a Grapefruit League game so far this spring. “He’s got a pretty good strain in there, but he’s asymptomatic, which is kind of interesting,” Boone said at Steinbrenner Field.

“So he’s doing quite well. I think he’s going to start throwing on Monday. And he’s able to do quite a bit right now. It’s going to be a few weeks probably. But feel like he’s in a pretty

good place physically considering he’s got that. “The good news is how good he’s looked, so hopefully this is not something that derails him too long. But certainly going to impact the start

of the season.” EXPLORE MORE The 34-year-old Matzek, just over two years removed from Tommy John surgery, threw a perfect inning against the Twins on Feb. 25 and felt great. He was driving

home when he began to feel some tightness in his side, but did not think it was anything major, so he continued to throw over the next three days. But Matzek was not comfortable going into

another game with his side still bothering him, so he let the team know and got testing that revealed the strain. The diagnosis surprised Matzek, who signed a minor league deal with the

Yankees just before camp opened. But despite feeling better than the MRI would suggest, he does not want to push through it too soon and cause something worse to happen. “I feel really good;

the [MRI] says that I shouldn’t feel really good,” said Matzek, who has still been able to throw plyo balls into a wall to keep his arm active. “So it’s one of those weird things. I think

the plan is just to be very cautious on it. It is March. There’s no point in doing something that would cause surgery or a longer period thing. Let it be a minor thing and just go with the

punches and be healthy for a majority of the season.” ------------------------- Austin Wells hit leadoff for his fifth straight game Friday, and for the second time this spring led off with

a home run. He is beginning to emerge as a legitimate candidate to bat first during the regular season, though Boone is still considering a few options, most notably Jazz Chisholm Jr. “I

think he’s going to be a guy in his career that is going to get on base,” Boone said of Wells. “That’s my No. 1 criteria for the leadoff spot. Not saying I’m going to land on him either,

it’s just something I’m looking at right now.” ------------------------- Clarke Schmidt, who could get into his first spring game next week, is lined up to start the sixth game of the

regular season, Boone said. GO BEYOND THE BOX SCORE WITH THE BOMBERS Sign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+. THANK YOU The right-hander, who was slowed briefly

by a cranky back, will stay back in Tampa to face hitters on the off-day after Opening Day before rejoining the Yankees. Because of two early off-days, the Yankees can use Gerrit Cole to

start Games 1 and 5 on normal rest before slotting Schmidt into the rotation. ------------------------- Marcus Stroman was much sharper Friday night than his last start, building his pitch

count up to 50 while allowing only one run across three innings. The right-hander was pleased with his mechanics feeling better, which led to an improved sinker.