TAMPA, Fla. — Twice in the last week, the Yankees have given very optimistic but also very vague updates on Aaron Judge. The Yankees slugger missed all of the shortened spring training because of a confusing injury that turned out to be a partially punctured lung and a broken rib.
Over a month after the season was supposed to have started, even with the extra down time because of the delayed season due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is no solid idea if Judge will be ready to play.
This is a concerning trend for the 28-year-old, who hasn’t played a full healthy season in the big leagues yet. The Yankees are protective of his health issues and Judge is understandably frustrated with the injuries that have keep him out of the lineup — or limited him — over the years.
The beloved face of the Yankees’ new generation of stars, Judge would seem like an ideal candidate for an extension. This winter, the Yankees agreed to pay him $8.5 million to avoid arbitration.
But, first, the Yankees understandably would like to see him get through a season healthy. With the weeks of added rest, which come from the national crisis, Judge has a chance to put that history behind him.
The Yankees seem to be giving him every chance to do that.
“It’s been very productive to have this time to allow that rib to heal, and that is happening,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on the team’s YES Network. “As to where he’s at exactly, we don’t have anything for you on that yet.”
Yankees president Randy Levine seemed just as optimistic — and just as vague.
“He’s getting better. He’s getting much, much better. Last I looked he was healing really well, but I haven’t gotten a report in I would say in about a week, but he’s feeling very good,” Levine said earlier this week on Fox News Radio.
That echoes the last we had heard from Judge himself. As he was driving out of the Yankees spring training complex, after having done a rehab session, Judge told us his last exam showed he was healing. He was not specific about how much the broken first right rib had healed, which the Yankees only announced as the issue that had been holding back Judge weeks into spring training and after numerous exams and tests.
He did, however, reveal that part of the issue that had been causing him discomfort was the partially collapsed lung — which had completely healed last month.
In his three previous big league seasons, Judge has never put together two healthy or strong halves.
He ended his 2016 season in mid-September because of a right oblique strain, which maintained his rookie status for ’17. He set expectations high in his “rookie” season, hitting .329 with 30 homers in 84 games in the first half of 2017.
Judge went to the All-Star Game and won the Home Run Derby, then immediately began to struggle. He was 1 for 21 in his first five games following the All-Star break and in his first 55 hit .185 with 11 homers and 84 strikeouts over 189 at-bats from July 14 to Sept. 12.
It was not until the next spring he admitted a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery had affected him.
Of course in 2018, Judge lost most of the second half of the season to a fractured wrist. After hitting 25 homers and driving in 60 runs in the first 93 games of the season, he only played in 19 in the second half. He hit two homers and drove in seven runs.
In 2019, Judge missed 54 games after straining his oblique in April.
His latest injury stems from a diving attempt to catch an Albert Pujols fly ball on Sept. 18, 2019. Judge said he received a shot and managed to play through discomfort the rest of the year.
He hit .264 (9 for 34) in the playoffs with one home run as the Yankees lost to the Astros in six games in the ALCS.
That loss and Judge’s frustration — flamed also by the reports of how the Astros had cheated in the 2017 ALCS against the Yankees — may have contributed to this nagging injury. Judge admitted he did not give his body much rest this winter, wanting to get back to work and try to get to a World Series in 2020.
“I think the consistent swinging and weightlifting throughout the whole offseason really didn’t give it the chance to (heal). If somebody breaks their leg and they’re in a cast, they’re immobilized for a couple weeks or months … You give the bone a chance to heal,” Judge said when the broken rib was finally announced in March. “But me, pissed about how the season ended last year, and the changes I wanted to make, I felt right back to it. We’ve all been through pain, bumps and bruises. In my head, I felt like it was something that I could fight through and I think that kind of cost me a little bit there.”
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