Yankees fans believe they've identified the play that injured Aaron Judge

On Tuesday, shortly before the Yankees' series opener vs the Guardians, it was revealed Aaron Judge wouldn't be in the lineup due to a shoulder/rib injury. The timing couldn't be worse as New York's schedule is heating up, with six games against Cleveland (the AL Central leaders), three against the Red Sox, and three against the Blue Jays.

It's unclear how much time Judge will miss. Aaron Boone said it could be a couple days or longer. Helpful, per usual. Imaging revealed a bone bruise in Judge's right clavicle area. Once that information was known, social media sleuths began digging.

Yankees fans, within the hour, seemingly identified the play that may have injured the reigning AL MVP. Back on May 3 (spooky, since that's when Anthony Volpe suffered his shoulder injury last year), Judge made a leaping grab against the Orioles and crashed into the right field wall. He was slow to get up, but ended up being fine and stayed in the game.

And that's when the offensive struggles became overly concerning. On the year, Judge is hitting .248 with a .907 OPS. That's pretty damn good for your average star slugger ... but not Judge. His numbers over the last five years have been far more prolific than that.

Not to mention, he's cut back on striking out since 2020. But after about two months in 2026 he's been on pace to strike out over 200 times, which would be the second time he's ever done that (the other came during his 2017 rookie season). So, yeah, something's up.

Aaron Judge's injury might've been suffered a full month ago against the Orioles

What's incredibly puzzling is that Judge has been dealing with the injury "for weeks" and has not received a day off. He's played in all of the team's 59 games through Sunday's action despite his offense falling off a cliff following that exact moment.

The Yankees had their ups and downs in May, but if there was ever a time to sit him, it was over the last month when their schedule was baseball's version of the Michelin Man. They played just five games against winning teams (Brewers, Rays) and had a premier opportunity to sit him against some of the league's worst offenses (Rangers, Mets, Royals, Blue Jays and Athletics are all 19th or worse in runs scored). Obviously, sitting him against the Mets and Blue Jays wouldn't have been preferred, but there were plenty of other lanes to do so.

Judge and the Yankees are far from out of the woods, too. The star slugger will be meeting with team doctors on Tuesday night to determine his fate and next steps. That's when we'll probably get concrete information on his timeline.

No matter how you look at it, though, this is a major concern. And the Yankees only have themselves to blame for allowing Judge to play through it for a month and presumably make it worse.

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