New York Yankee Aaron Judge is now back in the game as a designated hitter. Following a 10-day stint on the injured list due to a flexor strain in his right elbow, he returned to play on Tuesday night.
The team still hasn’t provided any update on when he could return to the outfield.
Aaron Judge’s recovery and return
The Associated Press reported that manager Aaron Boone stated that Judge will start a throwing program on Wednesday. The All-Star player went 0 for 3 batting third in a 2-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Boone said. “See how that first day goes. From there, we’ll probably have a better idea after a day or two of that.”
“No idea. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow, and hopefully I can get out there. Because we need all the big boys in the lineup,” Judge said when asked about how well he thought his throwing program would last.
Leading hitters in the majors recently came back from the team’s spring training facility in Tampa, Florida. “I think he’s been pretty upbeat about it,” Boone said. “I think down in Tampa, did a lot of things. Didn’t throw, but did a lot of things in kind of preparation for that throwing. So far, so good. So hopefully when he does start that throwing program, it goes well and he can progress fairly quickly.”
Following a dose of platelet-rich injection on July 27, no acute damage was reported to his ulnar collateral ligament through the results of an MRI scan. Judge is hitting .339, still comfortably leading the majors, is tied for fourth with 37 homers, and is fifth with 85 RBIs.
Although no clear timeline has been provided, it’s safe to assume Judge will be missing in action for at least the next few days.
How are the Yankees faring?
In the meantime, the Yankees have lost five games in a row and fallen to third place in the AL East behind Toronto and Boston. Despite being in first place to start July, they now have six games behind the Blue Jays.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Judge said. “A lot of things to clean up. But the boys in here are fired up to change all that and get things right. We’ve got a great ballclub in here. It’s a lot of mistakes all around. Some mental mistakes, some physical mistakes. We’ve got to fix them now.”