The New York Yankees announced Friday that Aaron Judge will go on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, and manager Aaron Boone would not say whether the three-time American League MVP will be back for the postseason.
The move becomes official Saturday and is retroactive to Thursday. That makes the regular-season finale on Sept. 27 the earliest Judge could return. The AL Wild Card Series begins Sept. 29.
An MRI in Phoenix on Thursday revealed the strain. Boone declined to disclose its severity before Friday’s series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
“I don’t know,” Boone said. “I don’t have a timeline on him. He’s on the IL now. I’m not going to predict anything. He’s getting treated, and we’ll see what transpires.”
The Yankees lifted Judge for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s loss to the Minnesota Twins because of tightness in his lower right leg. He called it a precautionary move at the time.
The calf strain is Judge’s second trip to the injured list this season.
He fractured his right rib in an April 26 game in Houston and played through it for about a month. The Yankees placed him on the injured list after a May 31 game against the Athletics in West Sacramento, and he missed 83 games.
Judge skipped a minor-league rehab assignment and returned Sept. 8 against the Colorado Rockies. He went 4-for-23 with one home run and 13 strikeouts in seven games before getting hurt again.
For the season, the 34-year-old is batting .241 with 18 home runs and 41 RBIs in 66 games. He won the AL MVP in 2025.
Cody Bellinger said the clubhouse has to find a way without its captain.
“It hurts. We all know he’s the best hitter in the game,” Bellinger said. “But for us in here, the mindset is that we’re going to have to find a way. I think the talent in this locker room speaks for itself, and I’m fully confident that we have enough talent in here to go out and beat anybody.”
Ben Rice leads New York with 38 home runs. Bellinger is hitting .276 with a team-high 25 doubles, 16 home runs and 71 RBIs.
Boone pointed to how much of the season the Yankees have already played without Judge.
“We’ve got a lot of really good offensive players,” Boone said. “A lot of good players, guys who are playing really well now. The reality is we’ve had to play a lot of this year without him. There’s no replacing a player like Aaron Judge, but we have high expectations that don’t change.”
New York has already clinched a playoff spot. The Yankees entered Friday at 88-64, five games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, with nine regular-season games left after the series opener.
Judge is not the only regular on the injured list. Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. has been out since spraining his right thumb Sept. 8. Boone said Friday that Chisholm is expected to be activated during the upcoming homestand.
Should the calf linger into October, the Yankees would open the postseason without the reigning MVP for the second time in his career’s final stretch of a season.
The Yankees host the Rays for a four-game series beginning Tuesday.
