Yankees won't put Aaron Judge on injured list, at least for now

ARLINGTON, Texas — Aaron Judge avoided a stay on the injured list.

At least for now.

Although an MRI taken on Friday showed a “mild” right hip strain, the Yankees decided it isn’t yet considered serious enough to warrant a stint on the 10-day IL, Aaron Boone said before Saturday night’s game.

“We’re going to wait to see, today and tomorrow, and see how we’re doing to see if this is something we want to take [the 10 days] or if he’s ready to play by Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” Boone said. “It’ll be something that we’ll just kind of pay attention to. Probably want to make that decision one way or the other by Monday because then we could backdate on the 10-day part of it. But right now, we’re just treating it day-to-day. He’s shown a lot of improvements in the last two days.”

Judge, who told Boone he felt like hitting in the cages Saturday — an offer that was quickly rebuffed — received treatment Saturday but did not do any baseball activities and likely won’t do any on Sunday.

Why not err on the side of caution by just putting Judge on the IL?

“Obviously, we don’t want to get into a situation where he hurts something further and put ourselves in jeopardy even further,” Boone said. “We’ll have to make that decision one way or the other, but right now we don’t feel like we have to make that decision.”

Boone said because of the versatility on the roster, with players such as Oswaldo Cabrera, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and the just-added Jake Bauers who can play multiple positions, the club doesn’t feel as if it will be playing short in the coming days until a call is made on Judge.

Additionally, Boone said, the Yankees don’t want to be in a position in which they “raced into doing it” — meaning putting Judge on the IL — and he suddenly is “ready by the early, middle of the week” to return to the lineup.

“So we’re going to take that time,” Boone said of making a decision by Monday.

Boone did say he felt overall that the MRI was a net positive in that it didn’t show anything significant. Several club insiders said Judge has been seen moving relatively well behind the scenes.

“I think you always go in nervous of what you’re going to hear and what you’re going to find,” Boone said. “In the grand scheme of things, big picture, we do feel like we got good news on it. But that said, we want to make sure we’re doing right by him and by us.”

The Yankees, whose offense has been unproductive  even with Judge in the lineup the last couple of weeks, did make a roster move Saturday, activating Bauers, an outfielder, from the taxi squad and demoting struggling outfielder Franchy Cordero to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Cordero, in a 0-for-21 skid, was sent down after a 5-2 loss on Friday in which he failed to get to a pair of balls hit his way — which, to be fair, would have been above-average plays had he made them — that went for doubles.

Bauers started in leftfield Saturday night, Kiner-Falefa started in center and Cabrera started in right. Bauers had to leave the game after making a brilliant running catch and hitting the wall in the first inning. He stayed down for several minutes before walking to the dugout and was replaced by Aaron Hicks.

The Judge injury occurred on a headfirst slide into third on a stolen-base attempt Wednesday in Minneapolis when he landed hard on his right side, rolling both hands, his right particularly hard, in the process. Judge stayed in the game and declared the wrist “good” afterward but woke up in the team hotel in Dallas on Thursday morning with discomfort in the hip. He felt it would loosen as the day wore on, but Boone saw him favor it during his second at-bat Thursday night and he soon removed the reigning AL MVP from the game.

“Just a little grab in the hip area after that headfirst dive the other [day], kind of the whole right side’s been a little locked up,” Judge said after Thursday’s game. “It wasn’t until the second-to-last swing of the second at-bat [in the fourth inning] I kind of felt something grab.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

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.