Aaron Judge, Yankees provide no timeframe for slugger's return from IL
Manager Aaron Boone #17 and Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees talk during batting practice before the game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on May 31, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. Credit: Getty Images/Steph Chambers
Let the speculation begin.
Neither the Yankees nor Aaron Judge have provided a timeframe for when last year’s American League MVP will return from the injured list with the right big toe sprain he suffered over the weekend in Los Angeles breaking through a bullpen fence while making a running catch.
“It doesn’t feel great. If it felt great, I’d be out there,” Judge said in the clubhouse Thursday before the Yankees’ doubleheader against the White Sox at the Stadium.
Judge, who underwent testing on the toe Monday and had a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection Tuesday, was officially placed on the IL Wednesday.
"There's no timetable, really, which I think is best,” Judge said. “Because there's a couple things going on in there. So I think they don't want to say a timetable and then it's a couple of weeks longer or a couple of weeks less. I think it's more based on how it's feeling."
Judge, who spent time on the IL earlier in the season with a right hip strain which caused him to miss 10 games, said he felt the MRI overall was good news, referencing the toe injury that hampered teammate DJ LeMahieu the last two months of 2022.
“Better for where it was at,” Judge said of whether the MRI results turned out to be better or worse than he expected. “I think they thought it might have been more toward the bottom (of the toe). DJ dealt with some toe stuff last year, which was more on the bottom of his big toe and that kind of leads into everything you do – pushing off, running, just even standing, you’re putting weight on that ball of the foot. So it kind of being more on the side of the big toe, I think is a big relief (more) than anything. It’s a best-case scenario.”
Just not one that, at the moment, is leading anyone involved to publicly speculate on how long Judge will be out, though one can safely assume it will be weeks rather than days.
“Right now, he’s kind of hobbling around, especially from the shot he just got,” Aaron Boone said. “We don’t have a timeline. We don’t know. He got a shot in his toe yesterday. We don’t have an answer for you.”
