Yankees' Aaron Judge's return to rightfield still a waiting game
Yankees' Aaron Judge makes a throw from rightfield against the Red Sox on June 7 at Yankee Stadium. Credit: Jim McIsaac
CHICAGO — Speaking to reporters on the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Aug. 15, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman provided a vague answer regarding Aaron Judge and when he might resume playing in the field.
“I think sooner [rather] than later, but I don’t have that answer,” Cashman said.
Organizationally, that still appears to be the case.
“Judgie’s going to continue to work this week. We’ll see where that leads,” Aaron Boone said Thursday before the Yankees opened a four-game series against the White Sox at Rate Field.
Judge, who spent July 26-Aug. 4 on the injured list with a flexor strain in his right elbow and who has served as the DH since his return, including on Thursday night, began his throwing program Aug. 6 in Arlington.
Before Thursday night’s game, Judge played catch with his usual soft-toss partner, trainer Alfonso Malaguti, starting at 60 feet and extending that to 90 and, eventually, 150.
After doing that for about 10 minutes, Judge went to rightfield. Standing next to Giancarlo Stanton, who started Thursday night in right, he threw baseballs to second base. Hardly letting loose but not seeming hampered in any way, Judge threw one-hoppers to longtime coaching assistant Brett Weber.
Asked Thursday if he still thinks Judge, who began throwing to bases last Sunday, will play the outfield at some point this season, Boone responded: “I do.”
Any indication of when that could happen?
“No,” Boone said. “We just have to kind of get through . . . [he’ll] throw a little more with some more intensity here [in Chicago] while we’re here this weekend, and when that day is, it will be.”
Since coming off the injured list, Judge multiple times has compared what he’s dealing with in the elbow to an athlete returning from a hamstring injury.
“I think it’s like any muscle injury,” Judge said on Aug. 6 after starting his throwing program. “You pull a hammy, you have to be smart. You just can’t blow it out.”
Judge, who since his breakout AL Rookie of the Year season in 2017 has always talked about the importance of being a “complete player,” repeatedly has used the word “brutal” to describe being unable to play the field.
“I’m a ballplayer,” Judge said last Sunday. “I want to play both sides of the ball and go out there making plays on defense, helping my team out. I know hitting’s important and all that, but I feel like I can impact this team on both sides, so I can’t wait to get back out there.”
But, for now, “wait” is the key word. Patience, too.
“I think that’s the name of the game right now is making sure I can push the volume, push the level of it, [but] also make sure I’m recovered enough to go out there and keep pushing it the next day,” Judge said. “Our training staff does a great job with that, so they’re helping me try to get out there as fast as I can. I think they all know I want to be back out there.”
As for Stanton, Thursday night marked his first start in rightfield in a big-league ballpark other than Yankee Stadium, which has one of the smallest rightfield expanses in the game (Stanton did start one game in right against the Rays at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training home, whose outfield dimensions more or less mirror those of Yankee Stadium’s).
Wanting to keep the red-hot Stanton’s bat in the lineup, the Yankees deployed him in right for the first time in two seasons on Aug. 9. They pushed the pause button when Stanton, who missed the first 2 1⁄2 months of the season with tennis elbow in both elbows, began having issues with his recovery after playing three straight games in right from Aug. 11-13.
“Obviously, a little more ground to cover [at Rate Field], but not any more physical concern than I would otherwise,” Boone said of Stanton, who had a .358/.421/.835 slash line and 16 homers in his previous 35 games, playing in a larger rightfield. “Tougher dimensions to handle, but nothing I’m more or less concerned about.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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