Yankees fans' panic reaches all-time high with Aaron Judge out of Saturday's lineup

UPDATE: It's confirmed. Aaron Boone told reporters that Aaron Judge is dealing with an "elbow issue."

The New York Yankees are in their version of a freefall, though it may not seem that way to a general baseball fan. They are 3-6 over their last nine, but they've been playing bad baseball for nearly two months now and sit a season-high 5.5 games back of the AL East lead.

To make matters worse, on Saturday, against Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez, Aaron Judge has been left out of the lineup, with many speculating he's injured. During the series against the Blue Jays, Judge tracked down a fly ball in right field and appeared to wince after the fact, something fans have clocked the moment it happened.

Though we don't know for sure at the moment, something has to be up. The Yankees lost 12-5 on Friday night and badly need a series win this weekend. Judge should never be absent from the lineup if there's a lefty on the mound.

The Yankees also just had an off day on Thursday, so it makes this decision all the more questionable. Judge has only gotten one day off this season, which came when they were on a heater against the Royals right before they played the Red Sox for the first time. Know what happened after that? The team went into a spiral.

The vibes were supposed to be a little bit higher. New York had just acquired Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies. While he's not the best player and some might find issues with the trade, he's at least an everyday third baseman who can provide stability. But now his Yankees debut will ring hollow with Judge on the bench.

Yankees fans' panic reaches all-time high with Aaron Judge out of Saturday's lineup

Then again, Judge is "slumping" for his standards. He has only one multi-hit game since July 9. From that date forward, his batting average has tumbled from .360 to .342 while his OPS dropped from 1.206 to 1.160. Still, though, that's nothing. He's producing, with three homers and 10 RBI, so it's not like his play warranted a reset.

As for concern on the injury front, Aaron Boone's response to it all the other day didn't have fans feeling any better. He penciled Judge in as the DH on Wednesday, the day after the slugger appeared to be dealing with some pain, and then provided a vague, uninformative, yet panic-inducing explanation. This organization couldn't understand the word "clarity" less.

Yankees fans already had a crumbling roster to be worried about. They're already on the edge of their seat, waiting for Brian Cashman to either not reinforce the team properly with what he'll call "impactful moves" or not do enough to fix what has gone horribly wrong.

Now, if Judge is possibly injured, we might as well kiss the season goodbye. What looked so promising in April and May has turned on a dime, and the clock is ticking. This could be a 2023 repeat all over again.