PHOENIX — The verdict is in, and it is not good.
Aaron Judge is going on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, the Yankees announced Friday, just seven games after he returned from a three-month stay on the IL with a right rib stress fracture.
With only nine games left in the regular season after Friday, Judge’s injury threatens to be a serious blow to the Yankees’ October hopes and dreams.
The earliest Judge can be activated off the IL — he will officially be placed on it Saturday, but retroactive to Thursday — is in time for Game 162, though there is doubt over whether he will even be ready by then.
The AL wild-card series, which the Yankees are all but assured to play in with their chances of catching the Rays for the division slim, begins on Sept. 29.
Once again, Judge will be racing the clock to try to get back in time, creating major concerns for the Yankees as they head down the stretch without their best player.
When Judge spent most of the summer months on the IL, the Yankees’ offense largely cratered without him, though they had started to break out of their malaise shortly before he returned on Sept. 8.
Judge’s injury will create further scrutiny as to whether he should have gone on a rehab assignment instead of coming straight back into games. The captain was adamant about not wanting to waste time playing in minor league games, and the Yankees — who could not force Judge to go on a rehab assignment — tried to ease him back in carefully.
They played him for six innings in his first game back — much to his chagrin — then eight innings, then an off day. Judge then played four straight games through Monday’s playoff clincher before the Yankees sat him again on Tuesday, after which they were hopeful he would essentially be a full go.
But then came the nightmare, when Judge felt some calf tightness while playing the field in the bottom of the first inning and then by the top of the sixth, was pinch hit for by Heliot Ramos.
Before the injury, Judge was still trying to lock in his timing at the plate after a long layoff, batting 4-for-23 (.174) with a .513 OPS and one home run. These final three series were supposed to be about getting him in a good spot for the postseason, but now he will spend them getting treatment and rehabbing in hopes of playing again.
Fellow Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton suffered a calf strain in late April and has not played another game since, though he was initially on the verge of a return in June before suffering two more calf strains since.
Judge, after leaving Wednesday’s game against the Twins early, likened the issue to something he would deal with in spring training while building up his workload, except it is now September.
In the meantime, the Yankees were expected to use Ramos in right field on Friday against Diamondbacks lefty Eduardo Rodríguez, and he will likely get the majority of the time there down the stretch.
Even before Judge’s injury, the Yankees were already dealing with a few players trying to make a comeback in time for the playoffs, including Jazz Chisholm Jr. (right thumb sprain), Trent Grisham (right hamstring strain) and Ryan Weathers (left forearm flexor strain). Grisham, who is in the midst of a running progression, now has a potential lane to come back in center field, which would bump Spencer Jones to right.
