NEW YORK — Aaron Judge is convinced — adamant, even — that he will return to the Yankees lineup this year.
“Definitely,” the Yankees captain said on Friday in front of his locker when asked if he would be back before the season is over. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”
It’s one thing for Judge to expect a return. It’s another thing entirely for the doctors to give him the clearance.
Judge has been sidelined with a fractured rib for the past six weeks. He underwent additional imaging on Wednesday during the All-Star break, but the Yankees are still waiting to find out when he can begin baseball activities. Judge said he recently started feeling “ten times better” than when he first went on the injured list on June 2.
So what’s the hold up?
“That was my big complaint,” Judge said. “Well, if I’m feeling better, how about we start moving? But I think they just don’t want to start up baseball activities and all this stuff, and all of a sudden we have a setback and push everything back. So they just want to be sure it’s healing up the right way so we can get back as soon as we can.”
Judge’s fractured rib has healed a little, which he described as “positive news.” But it apparently hasn’t healed enough to even engage in light exercise.
(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
The most physical activity Judge can do right now is lower-body work, including walking on a treadmill on an incline. He tried riding a bike, but he was shut down from participating in that increased level of activity, due to it applying pressure on his ribs.
“Oh, it’s been the worst,” Judge said of how the past six weeks have gone for him. “I want to play. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I get paid, to play big games for the Yankees. And especially with the team that we have, how special it is, how special this group is, I want to be a part of everything. So it’s been tough.”
All Judge and the Yankees can do is wait.
They’re waiting for the fracture to heal “all the way through,” in Judge’s words. And they’re waiting for Dr. Gregory Pearl, who is a Dallas-based vascular surgeon, to provide a clearer update. The Yankees are also consulting with Dr. Christopher Ahmad, the team physician, but they have been receiving guidance from a wide network of doctors and specialists regarding Judge’s injury.
(Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Judge and the Yankees have indicated that Dr. Pearl’s opinion on his latest images should determine a plan for when to begin baseball activities. They expected that news to arrive on Friday, before the Yankees took on the Dodgers in the Bronx, or by Saturday, the latest.
“He’s looked at so many rib injuries,” Judge said of Dr. Pearl. “So I think he’s the one that’s going to say, ‘It looks like it’s in a spot to where you can start upper body or baseball activities.’ Or he’s going to say, ‘No, give it a couple more days, give it a week.’ So that’s what we’re waiting on. We don’t want to prematurely start doing some things that could hurt us in the long run.”
As far as ramping up whenever he does receive clearance, Judge is eager to completely bypass minor-league rehab games and jump directly back into the Yankees lineup, instead.
“I hate rehab games,” Judge said. “So I gotta talk to them about all that, because why waste some at-bats in a rehab game? So we’ll see. I’m not too sure about that.”
(Photo by Justine Willard/Getty Images)
The Yankees (54-42) were in second place in the AL East when Judge landed on the IL, and 36 games later, they’re in the same position, looking up at the Tampa Bay Rays, to begin the second half of the season. Despite an ugly stretch at the end of June, which included a seven-game losing streak and bizarre series losses to bottom dwellers like the Reds and Twins, New York went into the All-Star break winning five of their last seven games. It helped keep the Yankees within striking distance, three games behind the Rays, of the division title.
The real litmus test of what the Yankees can accomplish without their star slugger arrived on Friday, when the Dodgers came to the Bronx for a rematch of the 2024 World Series. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole toed the rubber against Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki in the series opener, which was the veteran’s first time facing Los Angeles since that brutal Game 5 of the ‘24 Fall Classic. In the fifth inning of Game 5, Cole committed a costly mental error by forgetting to cover first base. The defensive lapse, compounded by errors from Judge and shortstop Anthony Volpe, led to five unearned runs and a 5-0 deficit.
Two years later, the Yankees still feel the agony of losing the championship to the Dodgers.
“The disappointment of getting to the end and playing for it all and coming up short,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of what comes to mind from that World Series. “That’s one of those things that leads to a scar. Part of our baseball journey, you want to be in a position to be in a World Series and play for it all. And we had that opportunity and fell short. So there’s pain and disappointment that comes with that.”
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series | MLB on FOX 🎥
It’s difficult to envision the Yankees reaching another World Series without a healthy Judge, but they still have time on their side to shape a plan of action. How fast Judge’s fracture can heal will determine what general manager Brian Cashman will do before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. If Judge needs weeks before he can begin ramping up, the Yankees will need more help on offense. There is no Judge-equivalent available on the market, but reinforcements are certainly available.
The larger point is that New York’s window to win a championship with their current core of star veterans is closing. Judge is 34. Cole is turning 36 in September. Slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who has been limited to just 24 games this season due to a calf strain, is 36 with one more year remaining on his contract. With baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring in December, which threatens a lockout and missed games in 2027, no one in the industry knows what to expect for next season. It’s all the more imperative that, this season, Judge returns to the lineup and steadies the ship as quickly as possible.
“I feel good about the fact that he’ll be back,” Boone said of Judge. “It’s just a matter of when.”
