Yankees staring down the barrel of lost season as Aaron Judge sees medical specialist

On Tuesday, it appeared as if Aaron Judge suffered an injury while tracking down a fly ball, but nobody knew what it could have been. The next day, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone put Judge as the DH despite the team having a day off after the series finale against the Blue Jays. Then, on Saturday, Judge was omitted from the lineup altogether.

Not too long after that news dropped, Boone told the media that Judge was dealing with an elbow issue that prevented him from "throwing well" from the outfield on Friday night. The slugger is undergoing imaging and will see head team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad.

And that's when fans really started to panic. Yes, Dr. Ahmad works for the Yankees, but he is an orthopedic surgeon who administers countless Tommy John surgeries every year. Couple that with the Yankees' epidemic on that front with position players (Jasson Dominguez, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Hicks, Didi Gregorious, Everson Pereira) in recent years, and it's safe to say everybody is fearing the worst.

If Judge needs Tommy John surgery, the Yankees might as well orchestrate a fire sale at the trade deadline. They're already hanging on by a thread, and losing their all-world player for an extended period of time will be the final nail in the coffin. Ryan McMahon will not matter one iota.

Aaron Judge Injury Update: Yankees star seeing team doctor, Christopher Ahmad

Fans aren't taking this well for good reason. This is a classic cautionary tale for the Yankees in recent years. The devastating injury blows are a slow, slow burn that cascade as each update gets progressively worse. If bad news is indeed on the horizon, we are in the "right before we get 1000% screwed" phase. Just one more to go, unless they decide to sneak in "he'll be seeking a second opinion" to delay the inevitable.

While there's a ton of pessimism simply because of how the last two months have treated the Yankees extremely poorly, fans are holding onto every last bit of hope that Judge's injury is minor. The fans are ruthlessly critical and sometimes unforgiving, but they want nothing more than for the Yankees to win. If they didn't care, they would tune out, enjoy the rest of their summer, and fast forward to the offseason.

There is no conceivable way the Yankees can survive without Judge. He is the best player on the planet and serves as the captain for a team that's only eight games above .500. If he's not present, this roster might not even be a .500 team.

Join your nearest prayer circle. The 2025 season (and short-term future) of the New York Yankees is officially hanging in the balance. And if you think that's an exaggeration, you haven't been paying close enough attention.