The Yankees are heading into another winter with Aaron Judge at the center of two separate conversations: how to keep him on the field, and how to keep everyone on the same page when something goes wrong.
That was the backdrop at the general managers meetings Tuesday in Las Vegas, where Brian Cashman said the club expects to use Judge at designated hitter at times next season. It’s a practical idea, but not one that figures to thrill a player who wants to be out there every day.
“I’m sure he’s going to need some DH time. I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear that. He’s an alpha, wants to play every day,” Cashman said.
Judge, 34, was limited to 66 regular-season games in 2026. He hit 18 home runs, drove in 41 runs and batted .241, leaving the Yankees to piece together an offense without the player they’ve built so much around. Any extra DH work for Judge would also mean the Yankees have to sort through an already crowded situation, with Giancarlo Stanton often filling that role when healthy enough to do so.
Cashman’s comments didn’t stop at workload. He also owned up to the mess around how the Yankees handled Judge’s calf injury late in the season, when the public messages from Judge and Aaron Boone didn’t line up cleanly.
“Just 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.
He said he had spoken directly with Judge about it, too.
“I’ve had conversations with Judgey. I think we’re going to be in a better spot than that because we try to avoid the self-inflicted wounds of trying to do all that.
Sometimes it can get you tongue-tied. But I don’t disagree with you that it does not reflect well, even though it’s not intended to do it that way.
It’s like a balancing act and sometimes you get tied up,” Cashman said.
The episode played out over a stretch that left the Yankees with more questions than answers. Judge missed more than three months with a fractured right rib before coming back Sept. 8 against Colorado.
Then, on Sept. 16 at Minnesota, he felt discomfort in his right calf and left the game. An MRI showed a soleus strain, and the Yankees put him on the injured list Sept.
From there, the gap between optimism and caution became part of the story. Judge wanted to stay in the conversation for the postseason.
Boone, meanwhile, made it sound unlikely he’d be ready for the first round. Those messages reached the public at nearly the same time, and the result was confusion about whether the captain could make it back before the Yankees’ season ended.
He never did. New York beat Boston in the Wild Card Series, then was swept by Tampa Bay in three Division Series games, scoring only five runs in that series.
Cashman said Judge had already gone through a follow-up medical evaluation and didn’t need another procedure. The expectation now is that he’ll spend the winter recovering and be ready for spring training.
So the Yankees are left with two goals heading into 2027: protect Judge from another long absence, and avoid another public tangle over his health. Whether the plan to mix in DH days for him can work without bumping into Judge’s desire to stay in right field every day is one of the offseason’s biggest questions.
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