Yankees activate Aaron Judge, end top prospect's comeback bid in surprise roster move

After strongly hinting at it earlier in the day, the New York Yankees ended Monday's off day with an Aaron Judge bombshell. Shortly after 8:00 PM EST, the team dropped a pair of tweets: one emphatically announcing Judge's return via a short clip responding to the timeline beggars among us, and one ending a former top pitching prospect's long road back from injury.

Judge was reinstated from the 60-Day IL in time for the Yankees' opener against the Colorado Rockies, with Chase Hampton DFA'd from the 40-man roster to make room for him among the active unit.

Hampton, another reminder that even the surest-thing pitching prospects rarely follow a linear path, pitched in 17 games this season and posted an 8.18 ERA, attempting to operate with diminshed stuff after multiple shoulder issues. He was threatening for Top 100 spots league-wide entering the 2024 season, when he was first felled. He then underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the 2025 campaign. It's unlikely, but not impossible, that he'll be claimed this late in the season. If he is, it'll probably be by a team out of contention that doesn't have to worry about valuing such spots quite so much.

Yankees announce Aaron Judge's return from injury with surprise hype video

Judge's return will impact the Yankees far more than Hampton's potential departure, as depressing as it is. In addition to the cold, hard text-only tweet - which came first - the Yankees dropped off an addendum to the YES Network's video that ran across social earlier in the afternoon.

In this clip, Judge knelt in center field, barraged and bombarded by questions about his potential recovery timeline. In the end? No further questions were needed. He stood and walked off, ready to lead.

The Yankees and Judge worked hard to be cryptic about his potential recovery timeline, but somehow the Sept. 8 line-in-the-sand seemed to leak a few weeks back. After one additional on-field batting practice session on Monday, during which Judge looked as ready as he'll ever be, the Yankees confirmed his arrival while he and his teammates were taking in the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Before hitting the IL, a compromised version of Judge still managed to post a 150 OPS+ and 17 home runs in 59 games. He'll now return to the outfield (most days), shifting Spencer Jones to center and with Cody Bellinger by his side in left. The Yankees are three games up on the Red Sox in the loss column and four games back of the Rays for the AL's No. 1 seed. They'll need every bit of Judge they can get.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow