The Yankees waited six weeks for reimaging on Aaron Judge’s right rib, only to essentially be told: try again soon.
The back-to-back American League MVP underwent imaging on Wednesday that showed healing in his rib, but not enough to clear him for baseball activities just yet.
He and the team were still waiting to hear back from a rib specialist to see if he might be able to get the green light to at least begin some upper-body exercises, which would represent a minor victory since has not been able to do any of them for the six weeks since he was diagnosed with the injury.
As of Friday afternoon, though, Judge remained in a holding pattern as the Yankees opened the second half of the season without him — as they will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
“Definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing,” Judge said. “Part of it’s healing, the other part of it’s still trying to bridge together. I think that’s what we’re trying to wait and see if we can get some confirmation of what we can start doing.”
Judge indicated was “definitely” confident he will still be able to get back on the field this year – “I don’t see why not,” he said, which manager Aaron Boone echoed.
“I feel good about the fact that he’ll be back,” Boone said. “But it’s just a matter of when.”
It remains to be seen how long Judge would need to get himself ready to play in games once he is cleared to resume baseball activities, though at this point, getting back at some point in August might be wishful thinking.
GM Brian Cashman had cautioned last week that the Yankees did not expect Judge’s rib to be fully healed yet. But they were at least hoping he would be cleared to do more than the lower-body exercises he has been limited to since the start of June.
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That said, they do not want to push Judge too soon because if he were to suffer a setback, it could potentially jeopardize his ability to play again this season.
“[There were a] couple weeks that were tough, really couldn’t do a lot, but now we’re feeling 10 times better,” Judge said. “That was my big complaint, ‘Well if I’m feeling better, how about we start moving?’ But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and other stuff and all of a sudden we have a setback and it pushes everything back. I think they want to be sure it’s healing up the right way so we can get back as soon as we can.”
Asked if he would need the equivalent of spring training (six weeks) once he does start baseball activities, Judge indicated he was hoping for a shorter runway – including not wanting to “waste” at-bats in a rehab assignment, though skipping one altogether seems unlikely and it is still well off in the distance.
Before they opened the second half with a showdown series against the Dodgers, the Yankees were still waiting to hear back from Dr. Gregory Pearl – the same specialist they consulted with for the original diagnosis – to determine what Judge will be able to do in the coming days and when his next round of imaging would be. Since the beginning of June, he has mostly been limited to lower-body exercises like walking on the treadmill, and briefly riding an exercise bike before they “shied away from that.”
In the meantime — with the Yankees entering Friday 18-19 without Judge and three games back of the Rays for the division lead — the painful waiting game continued.
“It’s been the worst,” Judge said. “I want to play. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I get paid, to play big games for the Yankees. Especially with the team we have, how special it is, how special this group is, I want to be a part of everything. It’s been tough, but we got a lot of great guys in this clubhouse that’ve been holding their own and kind of carrying the weight of this team. [Paul Goldschmidt], [Cody Bellinger], what they’ve been doing, Ben Rice, it’s been fun to watch.
“But it’s been tough sitting on the sidelines.”
