Brian Cashman says the Yankees need to do a better job letting people know what’s going on with injuries, and that alone is a meaningful admission after a season full of silence around the team’s health issues.
At the 2026 GM Meetings, the Yankees general manager addressed the way the club handled information during a year when injuries piled up across the roster. Eight of the nine batters in the Opening Day lineup, along with starter Max Fried, spent time on the IL this season. Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Gerrit Cole were among the stars hit hardest.
The biggest example came with Judge. Cashman acknowledged the confusion around the three-time MVP’s first injury of 2026, a stress fracture to one of his ribs that was believed to have happened after a diving attempt in Houston on April 26.
Judge was not officially placed on the IL until June 2, more than a month later, and the updates remained scarce until he returned on Sept. 7.
“Externally, how we communicate with you guys, I think we’ll be better at that as we move forward than we were as this 2026 campaign went. I don’t think that’ll be as much of an issue as we move forward,” Cashman said.
For fans and the media, that kind of clarity would go a long way. The injury itself may not change, but the lack of information leaves everyone guessing.
Judge tried to push through it for 32 games, and the results were still solid: .263 with a .901 OPS, eight home runs and 21 RBI. But the final stretch before the IL move told a different story. Over his last 11 games before the stint, he hit .171 with a .564 OPS and one home run.
The larger question is whether the Yankees should have handled the injury differently, not just the reporting of it. That’s not a new conversation in New York.
In 2023, Anthony Rizzo kept playing after a concussion from a collision at first, even after clearing concussion protocol, while dealing with tiredness and fogginess. In 2014, the Yankees chose a PRP injection and six weeks of rest for Masahiro Tanaka’s partially torn UCL instead of surgery. And in 2019, Luis Severino dealt with a right rotator cuff issue, then a lat strain, then more soreness after the team decided against a follow-up MRI that would have shown he wasn’t fully healthy.
Cashman’s comments suggest the Yankees know the communication piece needs work. The bigger test may be whether the way they manage injuries changes along with it.
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