Yes, Aaron Judge still is capable of clearing walls
Aaron Judge of the Yankees rounds third base on a two-run double by Luke Voit during the first inning against the Blue Jays during a spring training game at TD Ballpark on March 21 in Dunedin, Fla. Credit: Getty Images/Douglas P. DeFelice
CLEARWATER, Fla. — One of the silliest narratives of spring training came to a merciful end Thursday night with one swing of Aaron Judge’s bat.
The rightfielder, who had mostly hit the ball hard but had gone homerless in his first 37 at-bats, hammered one out of BayCare Ballpark off lefty Matt Moore.
Phony crisis over.
"The power is going to be there, so it's not necessarily something I always try to [work on]," Judge said Monday. "That’s a strength of mine, so I like to kind of work on other things [in spring training] that aren’t really a strength of mine. The power is not really a concern of mine."
Judge stepped into the box in the first inning against Moore on Thursday after a leadoff single by DJ LeMahieu (who had hits in his first two at-bats). Judge fell behind 1-and-2 before turning on a 93-mph fastball and annihilating it clear over the thatched-roofed Frenchy’s Tiki Pavilion in left.
Gleyber Torres hit a three-run homer in the Yankees’ 13-12 loss. Former Yankee Didi Gregorius and former St. John the Baptist star Logan O’Hoppe hit three-run homers for the Phillies.
Bruce in limbo
Aaron Boone said outfielder Jay Bruce, who had a Thursday deadline to opt out of his minor-league deal with the Yankees, will "stay away until we make a decision" on his status when it comes to adding him to the 40-man roster, an increasingly unlikely result at the moment.
Bruce seemed a roster lock when the Yankees signed him, but his struggles after a fast start at the plate — two homers in his first five games — and up-and-down play at first coupled with Mike Tauchman’s solid spring training had many in the organization rethinking things. Tauchman is out of options and would have little chance of clearing waivers. According to Bruce’s contract, he can request that the Yankees make him available to the remaining 29 teams, who would have 48 hours to put him on their big-league roster.
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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