Yankees News: Aaron Judge and his worrisome broken rib

The New York Yankees and Aaron Judge hope the extra time off has allowed his unusual rib injury to heal.

The New York Yankees news of late always seems to be of the bad variety. Over the past couple of years, injuries have piled up. An injury Aaron Judge suffered in September led to a diagnosis of a stress fracture in his upper rib in March.

On Tuesday, Boone told MLB Network Radio (approximately at the one minute mark) that this extra time off has helped Judge heal.

NJ.com interviewed an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Guillem Gonzalez-Lomas, who has never treated Judge, about the injury. It is an interesting read to learn more about this type of injury.

One of the key elements of the doctor’s comments is how he termed it:

…a  very unusual and rare condition. We just almost never see stress fractures in this area.

He also mentioned that proper treatment and recovery time is relatively unknown for this type of injury.

Will Yankees star Aaron Judge have any residual effects from his injured rib?

This is the big question, right? Aaron Judge already has an established history with injuries, playing only 214 total games over the past two seasons.

Gonzalez-Lomas talked about how this could affect Judge’s baseball activities.

…several important shoulder and neck stabilizing muscles attach to the first rib. He added that throwing and swinging “place massive forces” on the area.

For a player of Judge’s strength and size, this has to be a huge concern. This is a player who has a big, powerful swing, and a rocket launcher for an arm. This sounds like the kind of injury that could rear its ugly head again in the future.

What happens the next time Judge dives for a ball in the outfield and lands heavily on his upper body? This is a dude who is six-foot, seven inches, and 280 pounds. He’s never going to land softly. Is this an injury that can reoccur any time in the future, despite its rarity?

Judge is a fantastic player, offensively and defensively. His 162-game averages are superlative thus far in his career, at 45 home runs, 119 runs scored, and 101 runs batted in.

He’s developed into an incredible defensive player as well, ranking high over the last three years in defensive metrics. This just seems like a worrisome type of injury for a player of his size and strength.

The good news is the extra rest seems to have removed the need for surgery for now. Whether or not that changes when he starts swinging and throwing is a worry for down the road.

Hopefully, Judge will be fully recovered whenever the New York Yankees next take the field, and he will suffer no ill effects during the shortened 2020 season and beyond.