Yankees

Aaron Judge Heads Back to IL With Calf Strain as Yankees Turn Focus to October

By ••3 min read
Aaron Judge Heads Back to IL With Calf Strain as Yankees Turn Focus to October

AI Overview

The Yankees will place Aaron Judge on the 10-day injured list Saturday with a right calf strain, shifting their focus from the final week of the regular season to the postseason. Judge first felt the injury Wednesday against Minnesota and recently returned from a stress fracture of his first right rib. He hit .241 with 18 home runs and 41 RBIs in 66 games, including 4-for-23 with 13 strikeouts in seven games since returning.

Aaron Judge is headed back to the injured list, and the Yankees have to stop thinking about September and start thinking about October.

The Yankees will place Judge on the 10-day IL Saturday with a right calf strain, according to Bryan Hoch. A corresponding roster move will follow.

The injury started Wednesday in Minnesota, when Judge was removed in the sixth inning against the Twins with what the Yankees initially called lower right-leg tightness. Judge said he first felt it in the first inning and tried to stay in because the games still mattered.

Eventually, Judge made the call to come out rather than risk hurting the Yankees defensively or on the bases. Two days later, the diagnosis changed from tightness to a calf strain.

That is not something the Yankees can mess around with right now.

Judge just returned after missing more than three months with a stress fracture of his first right rib, an injury that traced back to a diving play in Houston on April 26. He returned September 8 and looked like a player trying to find his timing after a long layoff.

In seven games, Judge went 4-for-23 with 13 strikeouts and only one extra-base hit. For the season, he is hitting .241 with 18 home runs and 41 RBIs in 66 games.

Those are not Aaron Judge numbers.

October Has To Be The Priority

The Yankees do not need Judge proving anything over the final week of the regular season.

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They already have a postseason spot locked up. The AL East is still mathematically alive, but New York entered the weekend five games behind Tampa Bay with the regular season ending September 27.

That changes the calculation.

If the IL stint is backdated to September 17, Judge could be eligible to return for the regular-season finale. More importantly, it gives him almost two weeks to rest, receive treatment and hopefully get the calf strong enough for postseason baseball.

And that is where the Yankees need him.

There is no reason to push Judge through a weekend series in Arizona on artificial turf while dealing with a calf injury. Sprinting, stopping, cutting and exploding out of the batter’s box are exactly the movements that can turn a manageable calf problem into something much worse.

The Yankees already watched Judge lose most of this season to one injury.

They cannot afford to lose October trying to squeeze a few more September games out of him.

Judge wanted to play through it. That is what you expect from the captain. The Yankees choosing the IL is the smarter move.

Get him healthy. Get his legs back under him. Give him a chance to find his swing again.

Because if this team is going anywhere in October, they need Aaron Judge available when the games stop being optional.

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