New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge reacts after being called out on strikes during the fourth … More
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Seven years ago as Aaron Judge was producing a strong follow up performance to hitting 52 homers as a rookie, he was hit on the wrist by an errant pitch from Jakub Junis.
As Judge grimaced in pain the crowd at Yankee Stadium to watch the Yankees continue their game against the Kansas City Royals turned on their cell phone lights like at a concert as a way to calm their nerves.
Some of those same people were dealing with frayed nerves Saturday as the Yankees did not announce an update to the condition of Judge’s right elbow.
About two hours before falling to 21-28 in their last 49 games, manager Aaron Boone described his star as dealing with an elbow issue. A little over five hours, the update revealed a flexor strain.
“All in all, we got good news today,” Boone said. “I think all of us kind of feared the worst.”
Those are two words often followed by ulnar collateral ligament, the description of an injury requiring Tommy John surgery.
On the surface Judge being diagnosed with a flexor strain which will cost him about two weeks can be considered good news in the bad news world the Yankees are living with some of their wildest disparities in performance on field as the two-time MVP starts his ninth injured list stint and first since a broken toe from running into the wall at Dodger Stadium sabotaged the 2023 season and resulted in an 82-80 finish.
The wild swings in play are now threatening to sabotage this season despite a better lineup than two years ago.
This season, the Yankees opened with 35 wins in 55 games and a seven-game lead atop the AL East. After winning seven of 12 to reach 42 wins in 67 games, the Yankees lost six straight, won six of ten, lost six straight again and won five straight.
Since Cody Bellinger homered three times and made some people quip why the Cubs can’t get guys like that, the Yankees are on a 3-7 bender and getting outscored 64-43 with all facets faltering.
New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon (19) throws out Philadelphia Phillies’ Otto Kemp at … More
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
“(It’s) Aaron Judge, so, you know, it’s a big deal,” Boone said. “But we have a lot of really good players around him. We have three regular outfielders there that have played regularly that need to be productive. And offensively, I still think we’re good and in a good spot and we’ll be able to score runs at a healthy clip . . . Even with [Judge] down for a period of time, we got it.”
“We’ve got to improve right now on the run prevention front. Hopefully we start doing that sooner rather than later.”
They are at 10 errors in their past five games, and 19 in their past 23. They are pitching to a 6.29 ERA this month, easily the worst figure in baseball and in 20 games this month, they have allowed at least eight runs on nine occasions and lost by more than three runs in six of those games.
“It’s never a relief knowing he’s going to be out . . . but for what it is, I guess you could say ‘best case,’ ” Giancarlo Stanton said. “Everyone’s going to have to step up and be able to weather the storm until he’s back.”
The storm now is what they hope is small injury and short absence for their best player on a team fading further into the rearview mirror from the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East while dealing with a race to avoid losing homefield advantage in the dreaded best-of-three wild card series.
In the meantime, the Yankees will attempt to take a sad situation with their quality of play and try to make it better while seeking help in multiple areas such as starting pitching and relief pitching after adding a third baseman in Ryan McMahon is an incremental improvement from the .214 batting average Yankee third basemen entered Friday with.
While McMahon was making his way up I-95 from Baltimore after being obtained from the Colorado Rockies, the Yankees were flushing away an early two-run lead, committed an error that led to a go-ahead three-run homer.
Things did not get much better in McMahon’s debut when the Yankees trailed by eight in a game that would have been worse if the Phillies fared better than 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
The diagnosis on Judge seems to be the best possible news and the Yankees will attempt to produce some positive news on the field while waiting for their captain.
