Aaron Judge’s return was supposed to be the Yankees’ most carefully managed project of September: get the captain back on the field, keep the workload light, and save his body for October. Now, with a lower right leg issue hanging over him, that plan has turned into something a lot messier.
The Yankees had spent more than three months building Judge up around caution. He came back Sept. 8 without a minor league rehab assignment, played only six innings in that first game, and then kept getting planned rest as New York tried to avoid asking him to make up 99 lost days all at once. The idea was simple enough - sacrifice some September rhythm to make sure he was ready when the games really mattered.
But the ramp-up never got fully rolling. Judge was just 4-for-21 with 11 strikeouts through his first six games after activation, and even after his three-run homer Monday in Minnesota, the swing-and-miss was still there. The Yankees needed more reps, not another interruption.
That interruption came Wednesday night in the Yankees’ 5-4, 13-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. Judge left with tightness in his lower right leg after first feeling the issue in the opening inning. He stayed in until Heliot Ramos pinch hit for him in the sixth.
It was his seventh game back from a right rib stress fracture after 99 days away. Two more strikeouts pushed his post-return line to 4-for-23 with 13 strikeouts and one home run.
“Tried to play off and see how long I can go because these games are important down the stretch,” Judge said. “Talked it over and thought it would be the right move so we don’t cost the team on the field or in the basepaths.”
Now the bigger issue is not just whether he plays again soon. It’s whether he gets the at-bats he still needs before October.
David Cone zeroed in on that Thursday on YES Network. Judge has 24 plate appearances since coming back, and 13 of them have ended in strikeouts.
“I’m concerned,” Cone said. “He needs the at-bats… Lower-leg issue, calf.
We just don’t know. We don’t know till we know in terms of how severe it is.
Is he going to get any more at-bats before the end of the regular season? It’s a real question mark right now.”
Former All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski pointed to the move the Yankees skipped in the first place.
“This is why you go on a rehab assignment, especially when you missed as long as Aaron Judge did. He said it, this is like spring training, so you try to get the soreness and other little things that pop up out of the way by going on a rehab assignment,” Pierzynski said. “He didn’t do that, he didn’t want to do that.”
The Yankees had Thursday off for treatment, and as of early Friday MLB still listed Judge with right lower leg tightness and no return date.
There’s also the roster side of this. If New York puts Judge on the injured list now, he would be out through Game 161, which would leave only the regular-season finale as a possible tuneup. If the Yankees keep him active and believe he can return sooner, they can do that - but they would be working with one fewer usable player on the 28-man roster.
That’s the bind they were trying to avoid all along: protect the body or protect the preparation. With 10 games left and a division race still alive - the Yankees entered Friday at 88-64, five games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, with four games against the Rays next week - there may not be enough time left to do both.
The postseason berth is already locked in, but New York still has work to do before October, whether that means chasing the division or getting ready for a Wild Card Series. Judge’s job was supposed to be straightforward by now: stack enough regular at-bats, rebuild timing against major league pitching, and remove one more uncertainty.
Instead, the Yankees are back to wondering how much they can get from their captain before the games that count most begin.
Judge is batting .241/.360/.511 with 18 home runs and 41 RBIs in 66 games. Baseball Savant has him at an .839 OPS against right-handers and .892 against left-handers, and the Yankees don’t need to shelter him in a platoon role. They need him available and ready to hit everybody.
That urgency is what makes this latest setback sting. The Yankees were supposed to be past the fragile part of the comeback. Now they’re right back in it.
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