MLB

Yankees’ Rivera says knee not 100 percent, but will be by season

Mariano Rivera’s surgically repaired right knee still isn’t completely healthy.

“It’s not 100 percent,’’ Rivera said of the torn ACL he suffered May 3. “I would say it’s 95 percent. By the time spring training finishes, it will be 100 percent.”

The Yankees once again will rely on the 43-year-old Rivera to ignore his age and remain the top closer in the game. They don’t figure to have a backup plan, since Rafael Soriano is almost certain to sign elsewhere.

Despite his knee not being full strength, Rivera said he expects to have a “normal” spring training — with one slight alteration. He will start throwing “in another week or so. That I will start early.”

Until then, he will continue his rehab from the season-ending injury he suffered while shagging a fly ball in Kansas City.

“I need to do more strengthening,” said Rivera, who seemed to be in good health Saturday, when he gave a pitching clinic for 150 children, including many who attended Sandy Hook Elementary School, at Frozen Ropes Training Center in Danbury, Conn. “The hope is the 5 percent comes quick.”

He said he doesn’t believe the upcoming season will be impacted by hi s injury.

“Just make sure when I get there, I’m ready,” Rivera said. “I’m starting to get more active every day. I have a month or five weeks to start doing things [before pitchers and catchers report to Tampa].”

He remained non-committal about his future during a Q&A session with the participants.

“I have another contract for this year,” Rivera said. “You never know what’s going to happen next year.”

* The Yankees had expressed interest in Lance Berkman, but he agreed to a one-year deal worth $10 million with Texas yesterday, pending a physical.

Rivera’s former teammate, Roger Clemens, is among those on the ballot for the newest Hall of Fame class to be announced Wednesday, but the closer steered clear of the controversy and declined comment. … Among the children in attendance were some who attended Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six staff members were killed last month.

Rivera did not talk to them about the shooting tragedy.

“We don’t try to get into that,” he said. “We wanted to make sure they were comfortable and not treated different.”