The New York Yankees are closing in on Aaron Judge’s return from a fractured rib, but the club still has to figure out how to get their star slugger ready for the stretch run without sending him to the minors.
Judge will skip a traditional minor league rehab assignment and instead work his way back with the big-league club, according to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal.
That choice adds pressure as the Yankees try to stay in the thick of the American League East race.
Rosenthal said the team has to walk a fine line with Judge’s workload once he is cleared to play.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see how the Yankees handle this because, let’s face it, the worst thing that could happen would be if Aaron Judge plays for a week on and off, incomplete games, complete games, whatever, and then pulls some kind of lower-leg muscle, an oblique, whatever the case might be, and then you lose him for the whole season,” Rosenthal said.
“So they’ve got to proceed with caution, but they don’t want to be that cautious either and handle him like he’s some piece of fine china.”
The lack of game action in the minors leaves Judge without recent live reps under real conditions. That gap is what worries Rosenthal most about the plan.
“This is going to be really interesting to watch because when a player does not have a rehab assignment, he has not had game conditions under which to get back into shape, and that is the challenge that Judge and the Yankees face,” Rosenthal said.
Once Judge is back in the lineup, the outfield figures to be the toughest test. Running from gap to gap and standing for long stretches in right field takes a physical toll after time away from everyday play.
Manager Aaron Boone has already started talking about managing that load on a day-to-day basis.
“Aaron Boone, in talking to him [on Sept. 5], seemed more inclined to take a different approach,” Rosenthal said. “Play Judge as much as he can, let’s say, in the first game. Let’s say it’s seven innings, and let’s say they do the strength test, they test him out, and he’s a little bit fatigued. Okay, you give him the next day off. Maybe the next day he plays seven more, you do it again, give him a day off.
“Or maybe he’s seven, seven, nine, and he’s just capable and handling it well. No one knows just yet what he’ll be able to handle. He’s coming off a fractured rib, and it’s hard for people to understand outside of the game. Hard for even the media to understand sometimes. But even running back and forth to right field and standing as much as outfielders stand, there is a physical toll there that when you haven’t done it in a while, it becomes a factor.”
The Yankees have not won a World Series in years, and Judge’s availability could shape how far they go this fall.
Former pitcher Roger Clemens recently said a championship is what Judge still needs to cement his place among Yankees legends.
“Man, you gotta have a ring,” Clemens said on Sept. 4 .
“You gotta have a ring… [Judge is] a guy that when he comes to home plate, he’s in scoring position, and that’s what makes it fun for the fans, man. You’re on the edge of your seat, and if you make a mistake, he’s still like my young son who plays, my youngest, Kody, plays for the Twins . He says, ‘Dad, this dude missiles balls to right field at 110 miles an hour.’”
Judge has been one of the most dangerous hitters in the game when healthy, and his bat changes the look of New York’s lineup overnight.
How Boone and the training staff handle the first week or two of his return will tell a lot about whether the Yankees can keep him on the field through September.
The club does not want to rush him and risk another setback, but it also cannot afford to treat him too gingerly with the postseason still in reach.
Fans will be watching every inning to see if Judge can hold up and give the Yankees the kind of lift they have been missing.
