Aaron Judge missed his third straight game on Wednesday against the Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees are now waiting on imaging results before they decide whether their MVP needs to go on the injured list.
The initial diagnosis is a bone bruise in Judge’s right rib cage. Judge has been telling people he feels it more in his shoulder, but only when he swings the bat. That is a weird injury. It is also a worrying one for a Yankees team that has been carried offensively by Judge for the past two years.
Manager Aaron Boone said Judge was sent for “more specific” imaging on Wednesday to get clarity on the injury. The Yankees are not ruling out an IL stint. They are also not putting him on the IL just yet. The team’s medical staff is taking their time, which is the right approach with a player who is going to be the difference between a playoff team and a postseason out.
Judge has been hitting .171 with one home run and 14 strikeouts in his last 41 at-bats. That is not a slump. That is a Hall of Famer playing through an injury that is clearly affecting his swing. Boone admitted Wednesday that the Yankees first noticed the issue during a recent road trip to Sacramento.
The numbers tell the story. Judge slugs .700 when healthy. He slugs .250 right now. The contact quality has fallen off a cliff. The Yankees DH numbers are still solid because Giancarlo Stanton has been productive, but the offense is not the offense without Judge being Judge.
The Yankees are at the front of the AL East fight with the Blue Jays and the Rays. They cannot afford to lose Judge for an extended stretch. Their lineup is built around him. Their offense generates 70% of its runs in games where Judge does damage. Take him out for three weeks and the Yankees start sliding fast.
The smart move might be to put him on the 10-day IL now. Let the rib heal. Let the shoulder strengthen. Bring him back in time for the meat of June and a real run in July. That is the kind of decision that requires the Yankees to be honest with themselves about what Judge looks like at less than 100%.
The complicating factor is the Yankees roster. The team has been getting strong contributions from Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and Trent Grisham. The pitching staff has been better than expected. The bullpen has been the AL East’s best. The team is good enough to survive a Judge IL stint, but only if it lasts two weeks and not two months.
The worst-case scenario is the rib bruise turns into something more structural. The Yankees have already had Judge dealing with shoulder soreness for weeks. If the imaging shows more than a bruise, this becomes a multi-month conversation. That is not a place the Yankees can afford to be in early June.
What this means for the AL East is the Blue Jays and Rays have a real chance to take the division if Judge is out for an extended period. The Yankees have been the favorite for the past two years on the strength of one player. Lose that player and the math gets a lot harder.
Judge is the Yankees season. The Yankees know it. He knows it. The medical staff knows it. And right now, all of them are waiting to find out whether the bone bruise is going to be a week or a month.
Imaging is going to tell the story. The Yankees can only hold their breath.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
