Aaron Judge facing extended absence but expected to return this season
NEW YORK — The New York Yankees received bad news Thursday night, as the club announced that Aaron Judge has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side. He will undergo additional testing in about four to six weeks to assess healing and determine next steps.
Crucially, the club said Judge is expected to return at some point this season.
Judge had missed three consecutive games, including Thursday’s 2-1 win in the series finale against the Cleveland Guardians, with what the club called an upper-right rib bone bruise. The Yankees’ superstar had undergone multiple rounds of imaging over the past few days as the club awaited a specific diagnosis for the injury. Before Thursday’s game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said swelling around Judge’s ribs obscured the MRI findings, prompting the team to order further testing.
Boone said earlier this week that the three-time American League MVP had been nursing the injury for weeks, but his condition had worsened last weekend in the series against the Athletics in Sacramento. It had likely been affecting him at the plate for a while. Since May 17, Judge has hit .163 with one home run and eight RBIs over 13 games.
With Judge headed to the injured list, outfielder Spencer Jones will take his spot on the roster, a team source confirmed Friday morning. Jones struggled in his brief call-up earlier this season. He finished 4-for-24 with no extra-base hits and 12 strikeouts before returning to Triple A. Since Judge’s absence on Tuesday, José Caballero and Max Schuemann have played right field.
Jasson Domínguez is set to begin a rehab assignment on Friday as he continues his recovery from an AC sprain. Once Domínguez completes his rehab assignment, which could be as soon as next week, he could take Jones’ spot. This would allow the Yankees to play Domínguez in left field and Cody Bellinger in right field. The Yankees’ defense will take a hit, as Bellinger has been the best left-field defender in MLB this season, while there are still questions about Domínguez’s viability as an outfielder.
The loss of Judge puts added pressure on Giancarlo Stanton, who continues nursing a calf injury, to become the feared slugger he can be when healthy. Boone said Thursday that Stanton is not expected to join the club on its road trip to Cleveland and Toronto next week, making the team’s June 16 game against the Chicago White Sox the best-case scenario for his return. Stanton tends to avoid rehab assignments, as most of his work is done on the high-tech Trajekt pitching machine, which mimics live at-bats.
But there’s no doubt that none of these options are as impactful as Judge is for the Yankees. The club now must navigate at least the next month without its superstar.
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