A Sunday rescue from Ben Rice gave the Yankees a jolt, but the bigger question hanging over the stretch run is whether it can also spark a lineup that has been stuck in neutral since mid-June.
Rice wiped away some of the sting from his ninth-inning error at first base by launching a two-run homer in the 10th, sending the Yankees to a 4-3 win at Rogers Centre. That was enough to salvage the final game of their three-game set against the Blue Jays, who have suddenly climbed back into the conversation as a team a game out of the final AL wild card spot. For Rice, it also snapped him out of a rough patch; he was batting .184 since June 22 before the blast.
Now the Yankees are entering the final push with a handful of key issues looming.
Cody Bellinger’s return is one of the biggest. He’s one of the rare injured Yankees who seems to be running ahead of schedule.
Sunday marked four weeks since he went on the injured list with a Grade 2 strained left hamstring, and the original recovery window was four to six weeks. If he starts a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday, as Aaron Boone told reporters Sunday he might, then Bellinger could be back in the mix for the Aug. 21-23 series against Toronto at Yankee Stadium.
His eventual return will force some decisions. Since Bellinger landed on the IL, the Yankees have brought up Spencer Jones and traded for lefty-hitting first baseman/DH Luis Garcia Jr. and righty-hitting corner outfielder Heliot Ramos.
In that same span, Paul Goldschmidt’s role has shrunk dramatically, and he’s 2-for-21 since July 30. Amed Rosario has also faded, hitting .159 with a .446 OPS over his last 22 games, dating to July 4.
With Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both in the DH mix, the Yankees already have a crowded setup for players who don’t offer much defensive flexibility. Rosario’s lack of trust at any position makes him especially vulnerable, even if he still has some value against left-handed pitching off the bench.
Goldschmidt carries a similar profile. And once rosters expand on Sept.
1, Jones could be optioned temporarily to clear space for Bellinger, even with the way he’s playing now.
The other huge piece is Aaron Judge. Boone said Judge was cleared to begin catch play last Friday.
The latest MRI, taken almost two weeks ago, showed improvement but not a fully healed first right rib fracture. What remains unknown is the rest of the ramp-up: when Judge will be cleared to swing, when he can take batting practice, and when he can face live pitching.
Both Judge and the Yankees have sounded optimistic that the captain will be back before the regular season ends, and there are now six weeks left on the schedule. A best-case scenario could mean about a dozen games to get him ready before October.
That would be his version of spring training. Whether that’s enough to restore both timing and rhythm is the real issue, especially if the Yankees need to build in DH days for him and reshuffle the rest of the lineup to make it work.
Giancarlo Stanton is moving forward too, though slowly. The strained left calf has him running bases now, but the Yankees still have not offered any update on when he might be ready for even a brief minor league rehab assignment. Two months ago, the same calf strain was already a fresh problem for the slugger, and the pace of his return remains deliberate.
On the pitching side, Carlos Rodon could be back in the rotation as soon as this week, and that would come with a pitch-count limit. If the rotation is healthy, somebody has to move aside, or at least shift into some kind of tandem arrangement with Rodon. That would appear to put Will Warren on the outside looking in.
The Yankees also have reason to keep an eye on Ryan Weathers, who has put together a 0.85 ERA over his last five starts and helped the club win four of those games. On Sunday in Toronto, he allowed one run over 7.1 innings and beat Blue Jays Cy Young Award candidate Dylan Cease in the series finale. Weathers is entering territory he has not previously reached in terms of professional innings in 2026, but pitching coach Matt Blake said, “I think he’s taking care of himself at a higher level’’ and pointed to “a natural evolution to his routine and his body of work’’ as signs he can keep going as a starter through the rest of the season.
In Other News...
Yankees Roster Crunch Could Push Out An Expensive Veteran Bat
The Yankees lineup and roster picture is getting tighter by the day as Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton move closer to returning. Recent additions such as Luis Garca Jr. and Heliot Ramos have only added to the crowd, leaving the club to juggle playing time and roster spots while trying to keep everyone involved as the stretch run approaches.
Septembers roster expansion will help, but it will not solve everything, and the pressure point is becoming harder to ignore. New York still has to decide how much room there is for younger players, including Spencer Jones, as the veterans around him continue to return to health and the front office weighs whether the current mix can hold together without a more painful subtraction. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Rotation Plans Just Took Another Hit With Max Fried
Max Frieds return to the Yankees rotation did not last long, and that is a problem for a staff already trying to piece together the rest of the season. The left-hander has gone back on the injured list with the same left elbow issue that interrupted his year earlier, leaving New York to juggle its pitching plans again at a time when depth was already thin.
For the Yankees, the timing stings as much as the diagnosis. Fried had only recently gotten back from his previous absence, and now the club has to reassess how long it can count on him while other pitchers remain sidelined. With the rotation and bullpen both under strain, every setback makes the margin for error a little smaller. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Missed A Bullpen Move That Looks Worse Right Now
The Yankees have spent plenty of time trying to patch together a bullpen that has been asked to do too much, with some relievers struggling and others carrying an heavy workload. At the trade deadline, the club passed on a few relief options that might have helped lighten the load, and that decision looks more notable now as the relief group continues to wobble.
One name that stands out is a hard-throwing Angels reliever who has flashed real late-inning upside since coming back from a shoulder injury. He is back to showing the kind of velocity that makes him a tough look for hitters, and the Yankees were among the teams that could have explored that kind of arm boost. For a bullpen in need of stability, missing on that sort of power arm is the kind of deadline choice that can linger. [Read more 🡒]