Aaron Judge remains the missing piece in the New York Yankees lineup as the club heads west to open a series against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
Fresh off a 16-1 demolition of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees will try to keep their second-place standing in the American League East intact without their captain in the everyday mix.
Judge has not played since May 31 and the team has grown accustomed to navigating games without him, yet his presence on this road trip has fueled fresh optimism that a return may not be far off.
Progress has been incremental. According to MLB.com, Judge took overhand batting practice indoors on August 25, the first time he had done so since landing on the injured list. Until then his work consisted of tee-and-toss sessions, playing catch, outdoor running and upper-body resistance training.
He is traveling with the club rather than remaining in Tampa or New York with the training staff, and he has expressed hope of rejoining the active roster without a minor-league rehab assignment.
That timeline drew a detailed assessment from New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, who spoke Monday about when Judge might next appear in a game.
“My over-under was September 10th because I think I said September 10th, DH against Colorado, September 11th, play the Mets in right field on the 9/11 game, which will be meaningful for everyone in a bunch of different ways,” Sherman said. “I think he’s getting closer… He is going to call the shots on this. And I think that the fact that he’s going with them means that he is really edging close to some real stuff that is best done with them as opposed to in Tampa, back at the stadium with trainers.
“So I think if I were a betting man, you will see him hit on the field at some point on this West Coast trip… But I’ll say this also. He does need to prep his body. He hasn’t played baseball since May 31st. And more important, he was not allowed to do anything for a couple of months. He wasn’t allowed to ride a stationary bicycle. So he has a lot of ground to make up. He’s a world-class athlete. I’m sure he’ll make it up. But you also don’t want to rush it because any setback and then the season’s over.”
Sherman’s caution is well placed. Judge is in his 11th major-league season, all of them spent in pinstripes. Before the injury he was hitting .248 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs and 43 runs scored in 59 games.
Those numbers are far from his usual standard, yet they still represent production the Yankees have had to replace for three months. New York sits at 78-59 after 137 games and is 41-28 on the road, a respectable mark that has kept them in the hunt.
Adding Judge back into the lineup would give the offense another layer of intimidation at a point in the schedule when every series carries extra weight.
The coming days on the West Coast will reveal how close he truly is. If he takes live batting practice on the field, as Sherman suggested is possible, the conversation will shift from when he might return to how the Yankees manage his workload once he does.
For a player who has already lost so much of the season, the priority remains a healthy return rather than a hurried one.
