Yankees relieved to have Aaron Judge back in lineup
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge bunts during batting practice before a game against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas. Credit: AP/LM Otero
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Yankees did their fair share of losing before Aaron Judge went on the injured list July 26 with a right flexor strain in his elbow.
But their chances, obviously, of extricating themselves from what is now closing in on two straight months of mostly poor play are far better with Judge than without him.
So it came as a relief to just about everyone in the organization that the two-time AL MVP was back in the lineup Tuesday night against the Rangers after needing the minimum 10 days on the IL.
“Nice,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees tried to snap a four-game losing streak. “Feel like he’s had a good week leading up to this. Ready to go and hopefully it’s the start of something really good … He’s been pretty upbeat about the progress he’s made.”
The Yankees, who entered Tuesday having lost 28 of their last 46 games, went 4-6 without Judge. The outfielder, because of the nature of his injury and the Yankees not wanting him to throw, was at designated hitter Tuesday night and will solely DH on the days he plays in the near future.
Boone said Judge is slated to start his throwing program on Wednesday but didn’t put a timetable on a return to rightfield.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself on that,” Boone said. “We’ll see how the first day goes and then move from there and we’ll have a better idea after a day or two.”
Judge flew with the Yankees to Miami Thursday night and took batting practice on the field Friday and Saturday before flying to Tampa Saturday night. Judge took live at-bats against Yankees minor leaguers Sunday and Monday at the team’s minor league complex before rejoining the team early Monday night in Texas.
Judge’s injury occurred during the sixth inning of a July 22 game in Toronto when he unleashed a throw home from rightfield.
Judge started in right three days later against the Phillies at the Stadium, but there was lingering discomfort while making throws and he was soon sent for an MRI.
“I couldn’t throw. That kind of sums it up,” Judge said after getting the test results which showed no structural damage to the UCL. “I wanted to be out there for the team, be out there and do my thing, [but] after a couple days of it not really getting better, we decided it was probably best to get it checked out.”
Judge coming back and being limited for now to DH duties means Giancarlo Stanton’s bat will be absent from the lineup. Stanton, though he did some pregame work in the field before Tuesday’s game, should still be considered a long shot to seeing time there. He is, after all, a player who started the season on the IL with tennis elbow in both elbows, an injury Stanton said in the spring was likely to never fully heal this season.
Stanton dealt with the condition much of last season’s second half and he said from Day 1 of the spring whenever he came back it would be because he was at the point of being able to “tolerate” the discomfort and that it would never fully dissipate. Hence, the long shot element of putting the 35-year-old in the outfield, where he hasn’t played in two years.
Still, since returning June 16, Stanton has been among the club’s best hitters, hitting .270 with 10 homers – six in his last 12 games – and an .875 OPS.
“That’s the tough part, right?” Boone said of Stanton sitting. “G’s been in such a good place now for, really, most of the time he’s been back. That’ll be tough to navigate here these first few days, but hopefully it’s not something that’s long.”
Extra bases
Righthander Jake Bird, one of three new bullpen additions brought in before last week’s trade deadline who allowed Josh Jung’s walk-off three-run homer in the 10th inning Monday night, was optioned Tuesday to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Bird, under team control through next season, allowed four runs in his Yankees debut in Friday night’s 13-12 loss to the Marlins and struck out two in a scoreless inning the following day, a 2-0 loss. Also on Tuesday, the Yankees returned righthander Mark Leiter Jr. from the IL and recalled righty Yerry De los Santos from Triple-A. Righty JT Brubaker was designated for assignment.
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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