This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

There was steely resolve in Oswald Peraza’s eyes this spring, when the infielder learned that he would not be heading north with the Yankees, instead shuffling to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He waited for the next opportunity, and now it appears to have arrived.

“That helped me out a lot, going down to Triple-A and working on some other things,” Peraza said through an interpreter. “I feel like, given that time and the experience to become a better player, it has allowed me to grow. I feel I’m a lot better player today than I was back then.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone has said that he expects Peraza to “play a lot” in the wake of Josh Donaldson’s potentially season-ending calf injury. The 23-year-old is slotted to see time at second base, third base and shortstop, all positions where he feels comfortable.

Seeking a spark atop the lineup, Boone batted Peraza as the leadoff hitter for all three games against the Angels in Anaheim; Peraza reached base five times in Monday’s series opener, stroking a hit with four walks and a stolen base and seeing 34 pitches in total.

Those are the grind-it-out at-bats that the scuffling Yankees have been sorely lacking. He went hitless in the final two games of the Angels’ series sweep, but Peraza believes he can make life difficult for opposing pitchers.

“Just working on my routine to get better. It’s something that I worked on in Triple-A, especially when you’re seeing pitches close in the zone, but not in the strike zone,” Peraza said. “If I’m able to take those pitches, it just gives me a better chance.”

In 45 games at Triple-A, Peraza was batting .261/.352/.495 with six doubles, a triple, 12 homers and 28 RBIs. Patience had not been his strong suit, walking 20 times against 39 strikeouts, but Monday’s performance offered a glimpse of what his future could hold in that department.

Speaking about Peraza’s performance in the series opener, Boone said, “Those are high-level at-bats he put up there. That’s encouraging to see.

“When you couple [that with] the kind of athlete, the defender and the kind of impact he can have on the bases,” the manager continued, “hopefully that’s something that not only gives us a spark, but gives him that little bit of added boost of confidence that he can be that kind of player up here.”