Once again, the Yankees have to figure out how to survive without their best player for an indefinite amount of time. Aaron Judge will be placed on the injured list on Saturday with a right calf strain, the Yankees announced on Friday. It’s a devastating blow for the Yankees, who are publicly saying they have no idea when Judge will return, or even whether he will be a factor for them in the playoffs.
Judge played in just seven games since returning from the IL last week. He was sidelined for 99 days with a fractured right rib, skipped a rehab assignment, and hit .174 (4-for-23) with a home run, two runs scored, three RBI, one walk and 13 strikeouts in 24 plate appearances in his return. Though he looked rusty at the plate after being shut down from any physical activity for more than three months, Judge looked like he was just starting to get his timing back during the Yankees’ series in Minnesota.
The lineup around Judge looked complete — and dominant. Things were trending up for the Yankees. Instead, another Judge injury puts an enormous dent in New York’s chances of going back to the World Series.
The Yankees, including Judge, have remained ominously secretive about his calf strain. When asked what he was dealing with on Wednesday, Judge only said it was "lower body." The Yankees called it "leg tightness." All this after they made a dozen social-media posts announcing Judge’s big return from the IL last week. "I don’t know," Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters in Phoenix, Ariz. on Wednesday when asked if Judge would be back for the postseason.
"I’m not going to predict anything." The severity of Judge’s calf strain is unclear. Judge did not make himself available to reporters at Chase Field before the Yankees’ series opener against the Diamondbacks on Friday. On Wednesday, after he exited the Yankees’ game in Minnesota in the sixth inning, Judge downplayed the injury and said it’s something he has experienced before during spring training ramp-ups in years past.
At the time, Judge did not believe the pain he was feeling warranted any additional tests. Good on the Yankees, then, for requesting additional tests on Thursday when Judge’s leg pain did not subside. Boone said he was "concerned" once he learned that there was a need for additional imaging despite Judge already receiving treatment.
Eventually, an MRI revealed the calf strain. Typically, calf strains are tricky injuries with varying timelines to recovery. Most calf strains heal within six weeks, though severe ones can last much longer.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, for instance, has not played since April 24 after dealing with multiple calf strains, one on each leg, this season. Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor missed 56 games with a left calf strain this season, while outfielder Juan Soto missed just 16 games with a right calf strain in April. It could not be worse timing for another Judge injury, with the Yankees set to host the Rays in a pivotal four-game series in the Bronx next week.
New York (88-64) entered Friday five games behind Tampa Bay (93-59) for first place in the AL East. Since Judge’s IL stint can be backdated, the soonest he is eligible to return is Sept. 27 against the Orioles, the final game of the regular season.
But, without knowing the severity of Judge’s injury, calf strains typically take longer to heal than 10–14 days. That being said, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where Judge misses the Yankees’ playoff run. If the regular season ended today, the Yankees would kick off the playoffs by hosting the Red Sox in a three-game wild-card series at home.
Judge has found ways to play and push himself onto the roster before, and even though it’s admirable that the three-time MVP tends to tolerate extreme pain and play through his injuries, that doesn’t always mean it’s in the best interest of the team. In some ways, the Yankees are to blame for Judge’s second trip to the IL. They did, after all, grant Judge’s wishes and allow him to skip a rehab assignment after missing three months with a fractured rib.
The tradeoff for skipping the rehab assignment was easing him back into games. A day off here, half a game there. Except… Judge said he was "not happy" about being pulled after the sixth inning of his first game back from the IL, which he uncharacteristically shared with reporters last week.
He figured after missing significant time, the more at-bats he could get, the better. That’s reasonable, since playing in a series against the Rockies is likely equivalent to a minor-league rehab assignment. But look at the rest of the context, and the Yankees have more than enough motivation to stop listening to what Judge wants, and start doing what they think is best.
Judge fractured his rib by diving in a late-April game in Houston. He played hurt without telling the team for over a month, largely because the Yankees were dealing with a myriad of injuries on the position player and pitching side at the time, and Judge did not want to further hurt the team by missing games. But he ended up missing 85 games anyway.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman later publicly admitted that it’s possible Judge made his injury worse by playing through it for over a month. Similarly, Judge again played through his calf injury on Wednesday. He said he felt something in the first inning of the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to the Twins.
But he didn’t come out of the game until the sixth inning. He was seen grimacing, in apparent pain, in his third inning at-bat, too. Just like last time, isn’t it possible he made his injury worse?
You can argue that Judge could’ve blown out his calf in the minors, too. Judge made that same point on Wednesday, when he was asked about skipping a rehab assignment. But the intensity is always different in the majors, where every game matters for a Yankees team trying to catch the Rays for the division title.
"Talking it over, I thought it would be the right move to come out so we don’t cost the team on the field or cost the team on the basepaths," Judge said on Wednesday. "I stuck out there for a couple of innings. Especially going into an off day tomorrow, I didn’t think it was smart to push it too much here.
Like I said, I didn’t want to cost the team down the road." Judge, who is just as competitive as he is talented, is always going to push for more playing time. He’s always going to want to be on the field to help the Yankees win. But it’s up to the Yankees, particularly their upper-management, to be the voice of reason, and stick to it.
Asked on Friday whether Boone second guessed the decision to bypass Judge’s rehab assignment, knowing what he now knows, the manager said: "Not really." But he has to wonder whether it will end up costing the Yankees a ring.
