Aaron Judge injury 'update' coincides with wildly pessimistic Yankees predictions

As we noted about a week and a half ago, nothing's changed with Aaron Judge's injury situation despite slight panic over a re-imaging update. The plan was for Judge to get reevaluated in 4-6 weeks, and that conversation was right at the four-week mark.

And here we are, approaching week six, and we have another update. The Yankees announced Judge will undergo another round of imaging during the All-Star break to see where he's at in the healing process. Hate to break it to you ... this is also nothing new.

It's a helpful development, however, because it suggests Judge is moving along with the initial timetable. It's on the later end, but at the very least we aren't dealing with any delays or setbacks (yet). The Yankees need him back badly after their swoon abruptly kicked in. They've lost 15 of 20 and have been the worst team in MLB over the last three weeks.

Brian Cashman did note, however, that the team isn't expecting Judge's fractured rib to be healed. They're merely hoping he can begin some activities.

Aaron Judge is "progressing", but does that change Yankees timetable?

That said ... the reporting and overall communication surrounding Judge's injury have been problematic. Judge completely batted away reporters when asked about it a couple weeks ago. The team was completely silent on this front for a month (not to mention, the painful few days that had us leading to believe Judge would need thoracic outlet surgery when the news first broke).

Even right before this most recent update, a report surfaced suggesting the Yankees "had a date in mind" for Judge's re-imaging. Riveting.

But it's been far worse in other circles. MLB Network did a segment on Judge earlier this week and posited if we'd see him at all before the postseason. Harold Reynolds talked about the impact of such an injury on a baseball player and seemed to feel comfortable in his assertion that Judge will not be back before September. And then he even expressed some doubt about Judge returning before October given the ramp-up that would be required.

This obviously isn't concrete information, but this is a former player and professional media personality providing a unique perspective.

Before that, however, ESPN's Buster Olney had similar reservations, but not quite as drastic. His worst-case scenario timeline was the beginning of September, which ... is still two months away! The Yankees could very well be a sunken ship by then.

All we're saying is to brace for suboptimal news when Judge's images come back after the All-Star break. If there hasn't been significant healing, September is probably going to be what we're looking at. And with Giancarlo Stanton dealing with an entirely new calf strain, this lineup is going to be without power for at least another month (and we'd safely estimate six weeks).

It's helpful that we're not dealing with complete silence on this front, but expectations must be managed properly. We are a long way out from any truly positive Judge news, which has us wondering: how much worse will this annual swoon get without him?

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow