Aaron Judge’s latest scare with the New York Yankees arrived almost as soon as he got back on the field.
Days after returning from a ribcage injury that had sidelined him for months, the Yankees captain left a game against the Minnesota Twins with tightness in his leg.
New York lost 5-4 in extra innings, and the early exit immediately raised questions about how the three-time MVP had been brought back.
Judge had been out since late May after what was described as a serious ribcage injury. He returned on September 8, with the Yankees still in the thick of a playoff race, and he did so without a minor-league rehab assignment.
That choice is now drawing criticism from former All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who discussed it on the Foul Territory podcast.
“This is why you go on a rehab assignment, especially when you missed as long as Aaron Judge did,” Pierzynski said. “He said it, this is like spring training, so you try to get the soreness and other little things that pop up out of the way by going on a rehab assignment. He didn’t do that; he didn’t want to do that.”
Pierzynski’s point is straightforward. A player who has missed that much time typically uses a rehab stint to work through the stiffness, timing issues, and small physical complaints that surface when a body is asked to perform at major-league intensity again. Judge elected to skip that step and jump straight into regular-season games.
Whether a rehab assignment would have prevented the latest tightness is impossible to know, but Pierzynski argued that it would not have hurt.
The latest issue does not appear to be severe, and Judge is expected to keep playing as the Yankees try to pile up at-bats before October.
New York heads to Phoenix this weekend to face the Arizona Diamondbacks in a series that also marks the 25th anniversary of the 2001 World Series. The club still hopes Judge can find a rhythm in time for a postseason run.
His numbers this year already reflect the long absence. In 66 games he is hitting .241 with an on-base percentage of .360 and a slugging percentage of .511, along with 18 home runs.
Projected over a full season those figures would represent the weakest year of his career. In his last seven games the line has dipped further, to .174/.208/.304 with one homer. His lowest batting average in any season of 100 or more games was .267 in 2023, when he still posted an OPS over 1.000.
The current sample is small and interrupted by injury, but the drop-off is noticeable after he won American League MVP honors in three of the previous four seasons.
Most players who miss as much time as Judge did this year spend at least a few games in the minors first. He chose not to. Pierzynski’s critique is that the decision may have left the Yankees captain more vulnerable both to lingering production struggles and to the kind of minor setback that just occurred.
With the playoffs approaching quickly, that is a risk New York can ill afford if it wants its biggest star healthy and productive when the games matter most.
