What Yankees are thinking about Jacoby Ellsbury, who’s ‘doing pretty well’ in Tampa

Here’s the latest on Yankees center fiielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

NEW YORK — There’s a locker in the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium with a Jacoby Ellsbury nameplate with pinstripe game jerseys and pants drooping from hangers.

No, the underachieving center fielder who’s been out all season dealing with four injuries and two sicknesses isn’t on the verge of returning.

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This is just a case of a veteran who has been on the disabled list since March getting some respect from clubbies.

As of Wednesday, the Yankees still have no idea when or if Ellsbury will be a healthy candidate to crack their 25-man roster, which currently has no room for the likes of four Triple-A player who are a lot more worthy … third baseman Brandon Drury, first baseman Tyler Austin, utility infielder Ronald Torreyes and reliever Tommy Kahnle.

The latest on Ellsbury, who is in the fifth season of a seven-year, $153-million contract, is same old, same old.

“He’s in Tampa now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “I think he’s getting close to getting back into baseball activities. But he’s doing pretty well and progressing.”

Boone said the same thing last week.

What’s changed since then is Ellsbury visited a back specialist.

Apparently, the diagnosis was good.

Regardless, this was injury No. 4 this season for Ellsbury, who initially was shut down in February with a strained oblique before being shut down with a hip issue, then a sore foot and bad back. Along the way, his rehab stopped twice due to the flu and another sickness.

Asked Wednesday why Ellsbury, 34, still hasn’t played despite having injuries that never were termed serious, Boone answered, “I don’t think it’s fair to characterize (them) as not serious because they’ve kept him down and maybe some (injuries) have led to another.

“So they’ve kind of been nagging things that have truly prevented him from getting to that final step of getting into games and getting to play regularly. It’s unfortunate, but hopefully he can continue to progress and at some point hit the ground running and put this stuff behind him.”

Realistically, a healthy Ellsbury probably needs starting center fielder Aaron Hicks to get hurt to have a shot at rejoining the Yankees before rosters open up on Sept. 1.

And even if Hicks gets hurt, the Yanks likely would start left fielder Brett Gardner in center and play Clint Frazier in left over a healthy Ellsbury, who certainly has become a strong candidate to be designated for assignment and then released once he’s healthy.

The company line, however, is the Yankees want Ellsbury back, although this response surely wouldn’t pass a lie detector test.

Boone stuck with that take on Wednesday when he was asked if there’s a reasonable expectation that Ellsbury will play this season.

“(We’re) hopeful,” he said. “Hopeful. But I’m not going to speculate on him when … First things first is hopefully getting him back into baseball activities and then he can progress from there and hopefully at some point be an option for us.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.