New York Yankees Rumors: Aaron Judge’s injury status coming into focus

Adam Weinrib

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees celebrates during the 2019 MLB Playoffs.

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge’s injury status is coming into focus

Aaron Judge injury projections that emerge from New York Yankees camp will only grow rosier until the big man returns to an MRI machine. That’s the name of the game.

His future was treated very optimistically the last time his 2020 injury issues were addressed by management. That being said, we can’t allow ourselves to get lost in the platitudes. While we’re all hoping for Judge’s safe return in time for a proposed July Opening Day, there’s plenty we don’t know about the pain he’s suffering from.

According to reports that emerged this spring, Judge sustained a rib fracture and lung issue last September that would’ve theoretically precluded him from flying safely — something he did anyway, of course, throughout the postseason. While clearly battling through pain, Judge hit .333 in an ALDS sweep over the Twins, and followed that up by homering off Justin Verlander and hitting .240 in a tough ALCS.

Aaron Judge injury updates indicate he seems to be healing, but plenty of unknowns still plague the situation.

The last we heard from Aaron Boone regarding Judge’s early-May status indicated he was a “couple of weeks” from a follow-up CT scan to further determine his level of healing. The team hasn’t noted a setback of any kind, but clearly, if weeks of inaction during the league’s shutdown didn’t speed up his return, nothing would’ve. In fact, word leaked on May 6 that the Yankees had always been targeting a June or July return for Judge, no matter what they’d said publicly when the team paused their Spring Training in March.

Bottom line: we won’t know anything more definitive about Judge’s return date until that follow-up CT scan takes place.

The team has been understandably cagey about his injury battle from Day One, and Boone’s public confidence in his right fielder’s wellness (as well as a timeline that lands Judge in right just about the time baseball plans to resume) won’t be anything more than rumors until Judge is able to follow up with medical professionals.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.