Josh Donaldson was approached by reporters at 11:15 a.m. ET inside the Yankees clubhouse to discuss being out of the lineup for the third straight game. If Donaldson is at his locker during the hour where the media is allowed inside the clubhouse, he’s usually approachable and rarely turns down an interview. But Sunday morning was different.

After arriving at the stadium, Donaldson got dressed, grabbed a bat and headed to Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s office after declining comment to a group of reporters.

“Nope. Can’t,” Donaldson said before walking across the clubhouse.

Boone was supposed to talk with reporters for his normal pregame availability at 11:30 a.m. but did not speak until 12 p.m. It’s rare for Boone to be even five minutes late for a pregame news conference. He even joked that he usually gets on reporters who may walk in a few seconds late.

“JD and I were talking,” Boone said for why he was late. “It just spilled into a long conversation. That’s all.”

After Sunday’s win over the Rangers, Donaldson said the meeting “was about a lot of baseball stuff.” He added: “I don’t think it’s as serious as what you guys are trying to make it out to be. We’re having a conversation. It happened to go over his meeting (with the media), which I had no idea about.”

Boone said he and Donaldson have had a few conversations over the past two days and said they’re “on the same page.” Boone declined to get into the specifics of what the almost hour-long conversation entailed, but it appears Donaldson’s role moving forward doesn’t align with what general manager Brian Cashman said just last week.