Aaron Judge’s long-awaited reimaging provided neither the best-case nor the worst-case scenario.
So for now, the back-to-back AL MVP remained in somewhat of a holding pattern as the Yankees opened the second half of the season without him Friday.
Judge underwent imaging on his right rib stress fracture Wednesday that showed healing, but not enough to clear him for baseball activities just yet.
He and the team were still waiting to hear back from a rib specialist to see if he might be able to get the green light to at least begin some upper-body exercises, which he has not been able to do for the six weeks since he was diagnosed with the injury.
“Definitely a positive sign that we’re seeing some healing,” Judge said. “Part of it’s healing, the other part of it’s still trying to bridge together. I think that’s what we’re trying to wait and see if we can get some confirmation of what we can start doing.”
GM Brian Cashman had cautioned last week that the Yankees did not expect Judge’s rib to be fully healed yet.
But they do not want to push him too soon because if he were to suffer a setback, it could potentially jeopardize his ability to play again this season.
For now, Judge said was “definitely” confident he will still be able to get back on the field this year.
“I don’t see why not,” Judge said.
The Yankees were still waiting to hear back from Dr. Gregory Pearl — the specialist they consulted with for the original diagnosis — to determine what Judge will be able to do in the coming days and when his next round of imaging would be.
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Since the beginning of June, he has mostly been limited to lower-body exercises like walking on the treadmill.
It remains to be seen how long Judge would need to get himself ready to play in games once he is cleared to resume baseball activities, though at this point late August seems like the earliest he might return.
“It’s feeling better,” Judge said. “There were a couple weeks that were tough, really couldn’t do a lot, but now we’re feeling 10 times better. That was my big complaint, ‘Well if I’m feeling better, how about we start moving?’ But I think they just don’t want to start adding baseball activities and other stuff and all of a sudden we have a setback and it pushes everything back.”
