Yankees: Aaron Judge and Aroldis Chapman could return for Red Sox series

With only two weeks left in the regular season, the Yankees are close to finally getting Aaron Judge and Aroldis Chapman back healthy. Both All-Stars took part in simulated games during Monday’s off day and had no issues, the team announced.

While the Yankees still hold a 1.5 game lead in the first Wild Card spot over the Oakland A’s there’s no doubt they are struggling to win series in September. They lost another series on Sunday (now 3 of their last 4) at home to a bad Blue Jay’s team which dropped their record this month to 6-8.

The Yankees are well on their way to clinching a playoff spot at some point next week, but at this point in the season, they need to start playing a better brand of baseball. They’ve been inconsistent and sloppy in all facets of the game for weeks now and if they don’t clean things up in these last 13 games it will be a quick exit for them this October.

The good news is that they should have Judge and Chapman back for most of those games and they’ll each have time to get some games under their belt before the playoffs begin October 3rd. Over the weekend manager, Aaron Boone said there was a chance Judge could return to the starting lineup this week during the home series with the Red Sox and that Chapman might not be far behind.

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The three-game set isn’t particularly important for the Red Sox who are just a win away from clinching the AL East but for the Yankees, every game from here on out might matter. They need to get back to their winning ways and secure home field for the Wild Card game because the last thing they want to do is head west to Oakland with their season on the line.

If both Chapman and Judge can return this week like Boone said they’ll both have some time to get re-acclimated before that Wild Card game October 3rd. How effective they will be, is something we’ll have to wait and see.

For Judge, it might be difficult to get back to being the superstar player he was before the injury with limited at-bats down the stretch. He hasn’t seen real game action since July 26th and he himself the other day said that he probably won’t be back to feeling 100% until the offseason.

As for Chapman, if his knee is good to go he should have an easier time returning to form because his arm will be fresh after the long layoff. The Yankees will make sure they find ways to get him enough appearances before the playoffs so he can get back into a rhythm. With Judge, however, we don’t know how many at-bats he will need to get back to feeling like himself again.

It might take longer for him to find that power stroke again because it was a wrist injury that sidelined him and he never had the chance to play in any rehab games. Judge will essentially be rehabbing on the fly while also playing in meaningful regular season games which will be a challenge. The same goes for Chapman, but as I said if that knee is %100 he should be fine.

The biggest thing for Judge and Chapman is that they do get enough at-bats and relief appearances respectively before October 3rd. The Yankees need to win the majority of their games from here on out but for these two they should worry more about getting back into a rhythm than results.

They have to focus on the big picture which is the playoffs and if this Yankee team wants to make another deep October run they need Judge and Chapman to each play a big role. Because when they’re on the field they can make as big of an impact as any player on any team this postseason. They’re the Yankees X-factors who can help them flip the script and turn things around in a hurry.