Aaron Judge's wrist not healing as quickly as Yankees expected
Aaron Judge’s recovery from a chip fracture in his right wrist isn’t going quite as quickly as he or the Yankees thought it would.
“It’s not all the way where it needs to be,” Aaron Boone said before Wednesday night’s game. “Probably going a tick slower than we had hoped.”
While Boone said “it’s moving in the right direction,” the initial three-week diagnosis the Yankees gave when Judge went to the disabled list July 27 is no longer in play. He is still experiencing discomfort in the wrist.
General manager Brian Cashman, in an interview on WFAN Wednesday afternoon, said Judge underwent a second MRI and CT scan just to make sure there was no additional damage.
“Everything was as we expected, which was good, it’s just the time frame we undershot. So it’s going to take longer and [his return] will be whenever,” said Cashman, who added that Judge received a cortisone shot on Sunday. “But he will be back at some point. He’ll be back on track health-wise wise well in time for the meaningful games in the future. It’s just going to take longer than we anticipated.”
Judge, for the better part of a week, has been on the field at least four hours before games doing agility work and running the bases. Boone said he would try to swing a bat underwater on Tuesday.
“Again, we just want to get all that pain out of there,” Boone said. “Once that is, it’s bat in hand and I think [the rehab] goes quickly from there.”
Judge has a .285/.398/.548 slash line with 26 homers and 61 RBIs in 99 games.
Torres sits
Second baseman Gleyber Torres, just 10-for-69 (.145) with a .250 OBP in 19 games since returning from the DL, got a breather Wednesday, replaced by Ronald Torreyes.
“Just wanted to give him a day,” Boone said. “Feel like he’s pressing a little bit up there.”
Roster doings
To make room on the 25-man roster for Wednesday night’s starter, Luis Cessa, righthander George Kontos was designated for assignment.