On June 4, the New York Yankees finally received a diagnosis for their veteran slugger Aaron Judge.
After an uncomfortable waiting period, it was announced that the 34-year-old outfielder had been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side. He will be re-imaged in four to six weeks.
Yankees Starter Comments on Judge
GettyNew York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole comments on Aaron Judge’s injury
According to Bryan Hoch on MLB.com, right-hander Gerrit Cole recently stated, “Aaron obviously means a lot to us. He just plays great baseball all the time and brings great energy. It’s tough when guys get hurt, but unfortunately, it’s part of the game. As a team, you’ve got to figure out how to step up in those situations, and so that’s what we’ll do.”
Ahead of New York’s homestand series against the Boston Red Sox, 35-year-old Cole is logging a clean 2.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts across 18.0 innings pitched through three starts.
He walked four batters along the way.
With 13 years of Major League Baseball experience under his belt, he has two additional seasons over Judge.
As Cole mentioned, Judge is a major asset to the franchise, particularly on offense. Without him in the lineup, his fellow Yankees must find a way to dig in and start heating their bats in his absence.
Not only is Judge out of commission, but Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez remain sidelined, forcing the ballclub to take an even stronger hit this month.
Skipper Aaron Boone has been carefully designing a game plan to combat the persistent injuries, but it is ultimately up to the players to pull off a series win.
Upcoming Series Will Be Taxing
GettyNew York Yankees’ Aaron Judge is sidelined with his latest injury
Although New York is in a much better position than the Red Sox at this time in terms of overall records, it wouldn’t take much for Boston to surge ahead at Yankee Stadium.
New York has plenty of weight on its shoulders right now, and the organization is trying to shuffle around its roster.
This included calling 25-year-old outfielder Spencer Jones up from Triple-A as of June 5, just in time for the homestand.
In the minors, he is slashing .269/.378/.571 with a .949 OPS and 13 home runs through his 43 game appearances. He is being granted a chance to prove his value on the big stage.
He must capitalize on this opportunity.
Additional movement within the lineup should be expected.
As of Friday, Boston is riding a 26-35 overall record, placing them at the bottom of the American League East standings. The Yankees are in second at 37-25, just behind the Tampa Bay Rays.
New York is coming off a tight 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians from Thursday, although they ended up dropping the three-game set 2-1.
Now is the time for New York’s offense to build momentum at the plate to make up for the lack of hits from Judge.
Now, this hasn’t been the most jaw-dropping campaign for the slugger, but fans were hoping to see a turnaround by this point in the season.
Unfortunately, the opposite has happened, and now he will be out for a significant amount of time.
New York Yankees Starter Comments on Aaron Judge Chaos