Yankees Injury Update: Aaron Judge elbow, Anthony Volpe recovery, Gerrit Cole

We just gave you a meaningful New York Yankee news roundup. Now we've got an injury one for ya. While it doesn't seem like much is going on at this point in the offseason, that's just because everybody's hyper-fixated on the next impact move. But there are other developments with spring training just two and a half weeks away.

On Wednesday, Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone spoke to the media and informed reporters about the progress of a number of injured Yankees, the first of whom was Aaron Judge. Yeah, remember he had an elbow injury that everybody freaked out about momentarily?

It turns out the team managed the situation effectively (though fans were understandably worried given how many injuries have arguably been mishandled over the years). Judge's health is of the utmost importance and there was no way in which the Yankees could've afforded a misstep.

But after suffering the elbow injury in the second half and taking some time off, it appears Judge is doing "really well." Few had doubts after he was able to perform down the stretch and deliver in the playoffs.

He's set to partake in the World Baseball Classic (he's Team USA's captain), so if there was anything afoot there would've been no chance he'd be gearing up for extra game action before the start of the 2026 season.

Yankees Injury Update: Anthony Volpe recovery, Gerrit Cole & Carlos Rodón progress

Some more serious updates included Anthony Volpe, Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón. Volpe, per Cashman, is "working his tail off" in Tampa in his continued rehab from shoulder surgery. It's unknown when he suffered the torn labrum, but the incident dates back to early May when he attempted to make a diving play and landed on his shoulder, resulting in a game delay as he was attended to by medical staff and a day off.

Volpe ostensibly played through the ailment, and one might assume the condition worsened. For whatever reason, he got no extra time off to rest and ensure there weren't any lingering issues. He just kept playing and playing and playing despite horrible results on both sides of the ball. Now he's expected to miss the first two months of the 2026 campaign.

Nice to hear he's doing well, though. And that seems to be the same story with Gerrit Cole (recovery from Tommy John surgery) and Carlos Rodón (recovery from bone spur surgery).

Cole is almost guaranteed to start the year on the 60-day IL, and we will find that out as soon as spring training begins. As for Rodón, he supposed to miss a few weeks to start the season. The good news is that everything is going smoothly in their journey to getting back on the mound.

But if there's one setback here, for either pitcher, the Yankees season will feel like it'll be in some sort of danger, whether it's taking a back seat to the Blue Jays or getting stuck battling the Red Sox in the Wild Card picture. The whole point of assembling this crew was to have them at full strength for October, so that's what fans are desperately hoping for.

As for now, we'll take the postive developments when we can. Hopefully it's more of this and fewer out-of-nowhere injury surprises in the coming weeks.