New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge is facing a difficult stretch as the regular season winds down and October baseball approaches.
Placed on the 10-day injured list with a calf strain, the three-time MVP has expressed a desire to return in time for the playoffs, but manager Aaron Boone has already basically ruled him out for the Wild Card Series.
Calf injuries have a habit of lingering, particularly for larger, powerful athletes. Yankees fans need look no further than Giancarlo Stanton to understand how unpredictable these setbacks can become.
Judge himself only recently returned from a lengthy absence caused by a rib stress fracture that kept him out more than three months. He was back in the lineup on September 8 and suffered the calf issue a little more than a week later.
Randy Miller of NJ.com spoke with Dr. Spencer Stein, a sports orthopedic surgeon, about Judge’s outlook for the remainder of 2026.
Stein described a best-case scenario in which the strain is a minor Grade 1 injury that might allow a return in roughly three weeks. He was not confident that would prove to be the case.
“I’ve seen studies there’s up to 50 percent chance of re-injury in these muscular injuries — hamstring injuries, calf muscle injuries,” Stein said. “There’s a high rate of retear, so it’s definitely a balance of not going back too quickly on them.”
The doctor emphasized a measured approach.
“Follow the instructions and take it day-by-day,” Stein added. “Work with the therapists and trainers. Make sure your strength is there. You don’t want to rush it too much. You don’t want a long-term injury that keeps happening. You want to be able to come back, and we get that, but you do want to meet the criteria: Good strength with a good amount of flexibility in the knee and ankle area.”
Stein also flagged the specific location of the strain as a concern. The injury involves the soleus muscle.
“The gastrocnemius, plantaris and soleus muscles comprise the calf, and the soleus muscle is a push-off muscle and part of the Achilles tendon,” he said. “There’s just a lot of force in that area, a lot of strain and stress, especially when you’re swinging a baseball bat.”
The Yankees have offered little public detail, although Boone’s statement on Tuesday that the team was not planning on Judge to be part of the Wild Card Series at least showed some trasparency.
When healthy, New York possesses the talent to contend for an American League pennant and make a serious World Series run.
With both Judge and Stanton currently unavailable and other injuries already thinning the roster, the window for that kind of late-season surge is narrowing.
