Just days after his return from a lengthy absence, Aaron Judge is once again heading to the injured list, a heavy blow for a Yankees team with great postseason aspirations that relies on the presence of their star player. Although the news broke today, Judge will be officially placed on the IL on Saturday, leaving the Yankees short a healthy player for tonight’s matchup against the Diamondbacks.
There has been a heavy cloud in Yankee land ever since Judge left Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota
Twins in the sixth inning of an eventual 5-4 loss. Now, we know for sure that he is out for nearly the entire remainder of the season (Jon Heyman reports that he could be activated for Game 162).
According to Judge, he felt a problem in the first inning but initially decided to play through it before eventually leaving with right leg discomfort that’s been diagnosed as a calf strain. In the game, Judge struck out in both of his plate appearances before giving way to pinch-hitter Heliot Ramos, who took over in right.
Moving forward, it’s a glass-half-empty, half-full scenario; considering this injury is unrelated to his previous issue, it mostly depends on how you want to look at it. Clearly, it’s severe enough that, at the very least, the Yankees decided to err on the side of caution, removing their star hitter from the home stretch.
As far as Judge’s replacement on the roster is concerned, since the official IL placement will come on Saturday, the Yankees can’t announce who is coming up, but all expectations are that Max Schuemann will get the nod. The utility player formerly of the A’s last appeared in the bigs roughly a month ago, accumulating 87 plate appearances in 41 games off the bench for the Yankees this season with a pair of home runs.
