Yankees: Still no timetables for Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton to return

The Yankees are expected to have Aaron Hicks back in the lineup on Monday but the timetables for Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge to return are still very much unclear.

With each passing week, the Yankees injured list gets smaller and smaller and the team continues to gain ground on the first place Rays in the AL East standings. They now sit only a half game back and are getting healthier at the perfect time even though their top two home run sluggers are still out indefinitely.

Despite the absences of Judge and Stanton the Yanks have proven that they can win with the 25-man roster they currently have. Thanks to the performances from unsung heroes like Gio Urshela, Domingo German and D.J. LeMahieu they’ve not only weathered the storm through all the injuries but thrived, posting a record of 23-15 up to this point.

However, if this Yankee team is going to make a deep postseason run and win a championship there’s no doubt they are going to need Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. They’ll also need Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius who could begin playing rehab games within the next 10 days. On the pitching side, it’s just as important that Luis Severino and Dellin Betances come back healthy and return to form.

The problem is that we really don’t know when exactly we’ll see any of the names mentioned above return to action (other than Hicks). That’s especially true regarding Judge and Stanton according to manager Aaron Boone.

In Judge’s case, we all knew that he would be sidelined for a while after suffering a significant oblique strain back on April 20th. Almost three weeks have now passed and he still hasn’t resumed any baseball activities.

As for Stanton, after he strained his bicep on April 1st it was expected at the time that he would be back by the end of the month or by early May. That was of course, until he had a setback with a separate shoulder injury that required him to get a cortisone shot. Stanton could resume taking swings in the coming days, but he still has a long way to go before returning considering he’s going to need to play in a handful of rehab games.

In the meantime, the Yankees outfield has done just fine despite all the injuries thanks to the contributions of guys like Mike Tauchman, Cameron Maybin and Clint Frazier. Frazier was one of the Yankees top hitters in April before spraining his ankle on the 23rd but returned from injury himself this past week. Tauchman has played much better of late after really struggling towards the end of April while Maybin has been the biggest surprise of them all.

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The Yankees acquired Maybin from the Indians while he was on their Triple-A squad and since his arrival, he’s posted an OBP of .439 with a .324 BA. Maybin has fit in nicely with his brand of small ball because he gets on base at a high rate and makes things happen on the basepaths with his speed.

Brett Gardner is another guy who gets involved in the running game but so far this May he’s hit .143 and on the season he’s hitting .205. Gardy isn’t in danger of losing a roster spot like Tacuhman is when Hicks returns but he is going to see his playing time decrease because right now he’s simply not getting the job done.

Gardner is going to play even less once Judge or Stanton returns, but again the unfortunate thing for the Yankees is we really have no idea when that might be.