Yankees’ Aaron Judge Dealing With Multiple Injuries, Opening Day Still Expected
The New York Yankees are having a rough week.
In the wake of the Gerrit Cole news, that he has initially been given a 1-2 month timeline and is headed for more tests on his elbow, fellow superstar Aaron Judge is also dealing with multiple injuries of his own: One old and one new.
Judge underwent an MRI earlier in the week on his abs, which came back clean. But it is effecting his oblique, as the fourth group of the abdominal muscles is the external oblique muscle, per Study.com.
So the move here is to be cautious right now, which is why the Yankees won’t let Judge swing a bat until most likely the weekend.
“We ran tests, and everything came back good,” Judge said, via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “It’s just what I told them, I was a little banged up and needed a couple of days. Hopefully we’ll get back out there soon.”
Judge’s toe is also not fully healed from last season when he tore a ligament after running into the fence at Dodger stadium.
The good news is that Judge is still expected to be ready by Opening Day, which is the goal. But the reality of the situation is that he has some serious pain to manage, which is why the Yankees are not letting him swing a bat at the moment.
Judge still hopes to get into Grapefruit League play this weekend, despite his ailments.
Without Judge, who missed nearly two months last season, the Yankees floundered as they relied on replacement players such as Jake Bauers and Billy McKinney. The result was less than stellar as they finished 82-80 and you’d have to believe they would have possibly snuck into a wild card spot had they had Judge for a full season.
Judge is the heart of the Yankees’ lineup that now has another superstar in outfielder Juan Soto. The Yankees are also relying on a banged up Judge to play center field every day, which is a taxing position and not ideal for a banged up player. With an already not fully healed toe from last year, covering all that ground in center field will eventually re-aggravate the existing injury, which will eventually hinder Judge at the plate from fully pivoting when swinging.
The Yankees are going to need to play it safe with Judge, but we are about two weeks away from the start of the regular season and there’s a possibility that the Bronx Bombers will be without both of their top superstars.
Soto is here now, which helps, but without Judge, the Yankees aren’t World Series contenders. Same goes for if they lose Cole. They’re hoping they have both players for the majority of the season and later in October, but right now they are dealing with injury.
