Aaron Judge’s postseason availability has turned into a messy situation for the Yankees, and the latest twist came straight from the captain himself.
What started as a straightforward injury update has become anything but. After Aaron Boone said Judge was dealing with a moderate calf strain, the assumption was that the Yankees would be without him for at least the Wild Card series. That would have marked the first time New York entered a postseason series without Judge since he became captain, even though he has usually been locked in and ready for October.
But Judge sounded far more optimistic in the last 24 hours. He told ESPN’s Jorge Castillo that hep plans to be ready for next week’s series against Boston.
He expanded on that idea after the Yankees’ 9-2 win over the Rays, and his comments suggested he wasn’t thrilled with the way Boone described the injury. Judge questioned the wording when speaking to reporters.
"Everybody's 'moderate' is a little different," Aaron Judge said, according to the Daily News' Gary Phillips. "I think your moderate is a little different than my moderate, and so on and so on. So I don't know why he used those words, but I'm trying to come back as soon as I can."
That leaves the Yankees in an awkward spot. At first, there were no real updates. Now there’s more clarity about what the postseason might look like, but their biggest star doesn’t seem pleased with how the information has been handled.
And the stakes are obvious. Getting Judge back changes the lineup immediately.
But if he’s not fully right and the calf gets worse, the Yankees could be dealing with more than just a compromised October. There’s also the concern that pushing it now could create damage that carries into 2027, if there is a season next year.
It’s a delicate public-relations and baseball decision, and the front office probably isn’t loving the way this is playing out. Judge has effectively gone in a different direction from the messaging the Yankees have put out, and that isn’t the kind of issue that disappears quickly.
So now the club has a choice to make: put Judge in the Wild Card lineup and go against its own plan, or stick with the original approach and risk upsetting its star. It comes down to a bruised ego or that calf.
Even with Judge healthy, this won’t be simple for New York. The Yankees are still chasing their 28th championship, and while the starting rotation looks ready and Gerrit Cole was excellent in one of his final tune-up starts, the lineup remains the real question. Their postseason run will go only as far as the offense carries them.
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