The Yankees got the news they did not want on the Aaron Judge front. Re-imaging on Friday showed healing in his fractured right rib, but not enough to clear him to resume baseball activities. Judge has not played since May 31. He is now unlikely to return in a meaningful way before mid-August at the earliest.
Judge himself has said he expects to play again this season. That is what he has to say. The medical staff is telling him and the team something different.
Rib fractures are tricky. They heal on their own timeline. There is no surgery that speeds them up. Anti-inflammatories help with pain but do nothing for the actual bone. And once you start swinging a bat again, the rotational force is exactly the thing that re-aggravates the injury. The Yankees know this. That is why they are being conservative.
The problem is the Yankees do not have time to be conservative. The AL East is tight. Toronto, Boston, and Tampa are all within striking distance. Baltimore is the frontrunner but has been beatable. Every week the Yankees run out a lineup without Judge in it, they lose ground in a race they should be winning.
The Yankees have been trying to compensate. Anthony Volpe has been the best version of himself. Jazz Chisholm has provided real power. But the middle of the lineup without Judge has been unstable. There is no one else on this roster who scares an opposing pitcher into throwing around the strike zone. Judge’s presence lifts every other hitter around him. Without him, the entire lineup shrinks.
Aaron Boone has been making the tough calls. He pulled Gerrit Cole in the sixth inning of a recent loss because his stuff had flattened. He has cycled through relievers trying to find combinations that work. He has been open with the media about the challenges. What he cannot do is manufacture a replacement for the MVP.
The trade deadline is on August 3. The Yankees need to decide if they are buyers even without a clear Judge return date. That is a real question. Trading prospect capital for a rental bat or arm makes sense if Judge is going to be back for the stretch run. It makes no sense if he is done for the year.
The most likely outcome is that Judge does not return until early September. If the Yankees are still in the race by then, he could give them a stretch-run boost. If they have fallen out of it, he becomes a decision the team has to make about protecting him for 2027.
The Yankees are still hovering around a playoff spot, but their margin has evaporated. And their franchise player is still shut down.
Judge blocking Gary Sheffield Jr. this week was a public glimpse into how frustrated he is. The rib is not healing fast enough. The team is not winning enough. And the calendar is unforgiving.
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.
